Crisp lovers are only just finding out the little-known reason Walkers is called Lays outside the UK
CRISP lovers are only just finding out the little-known reason Walkers is called Lays outside of the UK.
Brits often spot the snack in shops and supermarkets under a different name when they are on holiday.
Most holidaymakers ask for Lays when they want Walkers, because the bag looks the same.
In 1970, the Walker family sold its business to American food producer, Standard Brands.
In 1989 Frito-Lay, a division of PepsiCo, bought the company. So the snack is sold across America and Europe as Lays.
But in the UK and Ireland the bag is branded as Walkers, due to the historic associations of the brand across the British isles.
However, the experts at One Pound Crisps have pointed out that there are a number of differences between Lays and Walkers.
They point out that the packaging and flavours differ, although the snacks are essentially the same.
The expert said: ” Walkers crisps and Lays crisps are not exactly the same things, although they are very similar.
“Both brands offer a range of potato chips and savoury snacks, and they are both owned by the same parent company, PepsiCo. However, there are some differences between the two brands.
“They offer similar products in terms of potato crisps and savoury snacks, but they may have differences in flavours, packaging, and other aspects of their products.
“The main difference between Walkers crisps and Lays crisps is that they are marketed under different names in different parts of the world.
“Walkers is the brand name used in the UK and Ireland,
while Lays is the brand name used in most other countries around the world, including the United States, Canada, and Australia.”
However, it appears there are other experts out there.
One Quora user said: “The brand that came first was Lays. Walkers, a very successful crisp brand that Americans wanted to copy and bring over to the States due to its success in the UK and amongst their
American Soldiers.
“Once Pepsi bought the English company Walkers and the American company Lays, they had a meeting on the name and which to
adopt.
“They found that the name Walkers was too hard for non-native/fluent English speakers to say due to the W, K and R.
“Many people struggle to pronounce these letters in non-English speaking countries and that made international branding
much harder.
“They [Pepsi] decided to keep the name Walkers in Britain where the concept of these crisps came from but all international sales would be called ‘Lays’ From now on, retaining the original 1930 Lays company name.
“The truth is the only reason Lays name still exists is marketing reasons.”
Coca Cola and Pepsi are clearly distinct products owned by rival companies.
Both brands came out more than 100 years ago and ever since people have been divided other which drink is the best.
But now fans of both have put their differences aside to focus on what the logo of the Pepsi can means and its left them blown away.
With a recent revamp of the logo, now with the word Pepsi written inside, people have been wondering what it means.
The simple logo has three waves of colours in a circle – red, white and blue.
It was renamed Pepsi-Cola in 1898, “Pepsi” because it was advertised to relieve dyspepsia (indigestion) and “Cola” referring to the cola flavour.
People took to social media sharing their amazement over the historical meaning behind the logo.
One person wrote: “Jesus! Didn’t know Pepsi’s logo had SO much meaning infused into it!”
Another commented: “Ahhh that’s the meaning of Pepsi’s logo.”
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