Walkers (snack foods) Walkers (snack foods) Walkers is a British snack food manufacturer mainly operating in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Walkers was founded in 1948 in Leicester, England by Henry Walker, and in 1989 was acquired by Lay's owner, Frito-Lay, a division of PepsiCo. They are best known for manufacturing potato crisps, and other, non-potato-based snack foods. It holds 56 percent of the British crisps market.<ref name="bbc.co.uk/food"></ref> The Walkers site in Leicester is the largest crisp production plant in the world, producing over 11 million bags of crisps per day and using about 800 tons of potatoes. In the 1880s, Walker moved
Real Crisps for independent retailers and pubs. After a financial investment in 1999, the company changed its name to become Sirhowy Valley Foods, while maintaining Real Crisps as the brand name of the lead product. In August 2005, Real Crisps moved into a new factory in Crumlin, Caerphilly. The new factory, measuring , increased the production capacity by 50 percent. This enabled the 90 staff to produce 37,000 cases of crisps per week. The move was due to demand outstripping the ability to supply at the previous location in Cwmfelinfach. At this point, Real Crisps were the second biggest company behind Kettle