People are only just realising why Walkers crisps are called Lays outside of Britain. Walkers crisps are a British institution, holding 56% of the crisp market, but the beloved snack is known as Lays outside the UK, and many are only now discovering the reason.
The Origins of Walkers
Founded in Leicester by Henry Walker in 1948, Walkers rapidly became a firm favourite, growing to command an impressive 56 per cent of the British crisp market in 2013. The brand is instantly recognisable by its distinctive logo featuring a yellow sun with a red ribbon across the centre bearing the name 'Walkers'. Yet overseas, the very same logo displays 'Lays' instead, prompting fans to question on Reddit: "Why is Walkers called Lays literally everywhere except in the UK."
The Acquisition History
In 1970, the Walker family sold the business to American food producer Standard Brands, and 19 years later it was snapped up by Lay's owner Frito-Lay, a division of PepsiCo. While it has been reported that Walkers retained its name in the UK due to its already well-established status, others maintain it's down to subtle differences between the two products.
Product Differences
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 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.
Pronunciation Challenges
Sharing their own verdict, an upvoted 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 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.
Brand Recognition
Backing this, a 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."
