Walkers crisps are a British institution, but if you have ever travelled abroad, you may have noticed they go by a completely different name outside the UK. The reason behind this is fascinating.
The Origins of Walkers
Founded in Leicester by Henry Walker in 1948, the much-loved snack rapidly became a firm favourite, capturing 56 per cent of the British crisp market by 2013. The brand is instantly recognisable by its iconic logo featuring a yellow sun with a red ribbon across its middle bearing the name 'Walkers'. Yet beyond UK shores, that same logo reads 'Lays' instead, prompting baffled fans to ask on Reddit: "Why is Walkers called Lays literally everywhere except in the UK?"
The Corporate Story
Back in 1970, the Walker family sold the business to American food producer Standard Brands. Nineteen years later, it was snapped up by Lay's owner Frito-Lay, a division of PepsiCo. While it has been widely reported that Walkers kept its name in the UK due to its already well-established brand identity, others argue it comes down to subtle differences between the two.
Differences Between Walkers and Lays
A statement on One Pound Crisps reads: "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 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, including the United States, Canada, and Australia.
A Pronounciation Perspective
One popular Quora user offered their take: "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 or non-fluent English speakers to say due to the W, K and R. Many people struggle to pronounce these letters in non-English speaking countries, making international branding much harder."
They continued: "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."
Supporting this view, one Reddit user added: "Frito-Lay bought Walkers, a separate company at the time, in 1989. Because Walkers had 41 years of brand-name recognition, it was kept as the name... people in the UK already knew and were familiar with that brand."
