Long before petrol stations grew into the multi-service hubs they often are today, there was one category you were guaranteed to find in even the humblest outlet: crisps.
And while all manner of hot and cold food offerings are available today, crisps and savoury snacks remain a constant, and it is impossible to envisage any forecourt kiosk not offering a comprehensive range targeting health, indulgence, and everything in between.
With the UK’s crisp and savoury snack (or crisps, snacks and nuts) market still growing despite already being worth between £4.4bn and £6.5bn depending on how you categorise it, one thing is for sure: getting this right is imperative.
With that in mind, here are five things to know about crisps and savoury snacks.
- PMPs are VIPs
- Is fibre the new protein? Savoury snacks win either way
- Flavour developments
- Spice is a snacking linchpin
- Siting and displays
1. PMPs are VIPs
Cost is a crucial consideration in this category, with huge numbers of consumers being put off by snacks that are, to be frank, too expensive, as PepsiCo’s Simon Foster, category management controller, Impulse & AFH (away from home), explains.
“There’s a cohort of shoppers who are very value conscious,” Foster says, citing research from Kantar Worldpanel that indicates three quarters of a million shoppers won’t spend more than £1 on a bag of crisps or equivalent savoury snack.
With that in mind, PepsiCo has introduced 85p PMPs (price-marked-packs) across its “most loved” (IE best-selling) Walkers flavours – namely Salt & Vinegar, Ready Salted, and Cheese & Onion – with, Foster says, “the intention of trying to show value to those shoppers”.
Walkers isn’t the only brand heading a value charge: KP Snacks’ head of convenience and impulse, Stuart Graham, highlights that PMPs are “leading the way as shoppers seek value”, with KP’s Discos, Skips, and Nik Naks among the lines offered in this format.
Envis, meanwhile, has reduced its PMP Wanted Tortilla Chips from £1.25 to £1 and, while often being slightly above the £1 watershed, PMPs are available in many corners of the category, often helping to usher in new flavours or lines.
Notable examples include Mini Cheddars and its new Chipotle & Lime flavour, available in 95g packs price marked at £1.25, Doritos 3D Nacho Cheese, and Sizzling Steak; Nik Naks Xtra Hot ‘N Fiery; and Skips Salt & Vinegar – all relative newcomers, and all available in £1.35 PMP format.
In short, if your shop’s crisp and savoury snack aisle lacks price-marked packs, you’re missing out both on promotional opportunities for new lines that could fly off the shelves, and a significant demographic of customers.
2. Is fibre the new protein? Savoury snacks win either way
One of the bigger food stories in recent years has been the rise of weight-loss drugs and the focus on protein they have brought, as a growing cohort of customers seek snacks that provide sustenance while accommodating the reduced appetites their medication brings.
Little wonder, then, that the protein-rich nut sub-category is worth £580m, while McCoy’s has recently entered the market with its Coated Peanuts, offered in Flame Grilled Steak and Salt & Malt Vinegar variants – both available, as it happens, as £1.35 PMPs.
Given such trends, it’s little wonder protein partnerships proliferate: KP Nuts is among the official sponsors of The Hundred cricket league this summer, while jerky firm Jack Links continues to see “strong momentum behind protein-led snacking” and has partnered with MrBeast – who found such success with YouTube he now controls a £5bn business empire – to help promote its products.
Snapping at protein’s heels, though, is fibre, which is poised to be a food trend in the coming months and years – to the extent that some are already beginning to speak of ‘fibremaxxing’. This is arguably an evolution of the protein focus, but also speaks to the growing importance shoppers place on nutrition and understanding the benefits and effects of what they consume.
“We’re seeing a lot of protein, but we believe fibre is the next protein,” says PepsiCo’s Simon Foster, who explains that “snacking is a really good vehicle for fibre”, with his firm’s recent rebrand of Sunbites into S.U.N. (short for simple, uplifting nutrition) being done “partly to lean into this fibre trend”.
Other fibre-rich products in the crisp and savoury snacks category include Proper’s Lentil Chips, now offered in House Hot Sauce flavour; vegetable crisps such as Tyrrells Mixed Root Vegetable Crisps; and popcorn, which is a sub-category that has grown from minimal footprint to a £300m market staple in recent years, and which, as Proper Snack’s chief executive recently pointed out to our sister title The Grocer, “contains 10 times more fibre than spinach”.
3. Flavour developments
Nutrition may be all important for health and wellness, but it would be disingenuous not to recognise that crisps and savoury snacks are worth billions because they taste good.
Given how tricky it can be to hit on a winning flavour combination, though, limited-edition lines are often tested in this category. Recent launches in a time-bound format include Essex-based Fairfield Farm’s Cajun Barbecue crisps; Mini Cheddars Chipotle & Lime and Nacho Cheese flavours; and a tie up between Pringles and Burger King, which has resulted in limited-edition Bacon Double Cheese XL, and Chicken Royale flavours.
But while some flavours are best played out with a short residency – at least initially – others are so established as to almost become an institution.
Cheese, for example, has been associated with snacks almost from day one, as evidenced by Cheeze-It, which has been a staple of US snacking for over a century, yet only launched in the UK in late 2024.
The brand’s Double Cheese flavour was later joined by Cheese and Chilli, Sour Cream and Onion, and Cheese and Smokey Bacon and, with £33m in sales 22m packs finding homes in less than two years, one has to ask what took Cheeze-It so long.
Discos, meanwhile, has blended the old and new by relaunching its Pickled Onion flavour, last seen on snacking shelves as long ago as 2005.
4. Spice is a snacking linchpin
Not so long ago the idea of chilli-flavoured crisps would be seen as daring, but such is the popularity of heat that today it is almost inconceivable that a snack line would not have a spicy flavour.
Indeed, it is such a linchpin that significant launches have featured heat from the get-go, with Doritos Chilli Heatwave and Doritos Flamin’ Hot being chosen as two of the six launch flavours for PepsiCo’s That’s Nuts range of coated peanuts.
Kettle Chips has made a similar call when venturing into new territory: the premium crisp maker has expanded into tortilla chips and made its debut with three flavours: Mature Cheddar & Red Onion; Sea Salt & Black Pepper and, you guessed it, Sweet Chilli and Sour Cream.
Speaking of sugar and spice, hot honey has been having something of a moment of late, with this western take on sweet chilli sauce cropping up in all manner of foods, from fried chicken and pizza, to ice cream and vegetables.
Now, Walkers is getting in on the chilli-infused-honey action with its Hot Honey Crisps under its Flavours of the World sub-brand, while Doritos is offering a similar take on the formula with its Hot Honey and Golden Sriracha flavour.
Spice is undoubtedly popular, but it also exists on a spectrum, and viral brand Takis has long prided its rolled tortilla crisps as being at the bright end of that spectrum, proclaiming itself the UK’s spiciest snack with Fuego, Blue Heat, Volcano, and Dragon Sweet Chilli giving some clue as to this focus.
Recognising such extreme heat was excluding it from some parts of the market, though, the Mexican firm recently launched a new Smokin’ BBQ flavour, which it says delivers the “full intensity” the brand is known for, “but without the high heat that can deter more cautious shoppers”.
5. Siting and displays
While the crisp and savoury snack market as a whole is growing, Mars Snacking’s salty snacks marketing lead, Rebecca Worthington, notes that Circana research indicates the opposite is true for independent and symbol stores, which saw a 1.3% decline in this category last year.
With that in mind, Worthington says retailers should “think of crisps and snacks as a reliable basket builder all across the store, rather than just one location”, stocking them in areas including meal deals and big-night-in products, while multipacks work well close to kitchen-cupboard essentials.
She also suggests retailers in “trend-sensitive urban areas” monitor social media, particularly TikTok and Instagram, for “viral demand cycles”, though cautions that “chasing every niche, emerging brand is a high-risk strategy”, and shops could instead consider offering major brands in “double or even triple faced” displays to avoid overwhelming customers.
PepsiCo’s Simon Foster echoes this sentiment, noting that “the main fixture makes up 75% of sales” where snacking is concerned, and says double facing “makes it clear and obvious to shoppers so they can make a decision quickly”.
Foster also notes that where crisps and savoury snacks are concerned, “a key complimentary category is, of course, beers wines and spirits”.
