People only just realizing why Lays chips are called Walkers in Britain

If you've ever traveled abroad, you might have noticed that Walkers crisps go by a different name in the USA. Walkers 'crisps' were established in Leicester by Henry Walker in 1948, and the snack quickly became a national favorite, securing a massive 56% of the British chip market by 2013.

The brand is easily identifiable by its iconic logo featuring a yellow sun with a red ribbon across it reading 'Walkers'. However, internationally, the logo reads 'Lays', leading fans to ask on Reddit: "Why is Walkers called Lays literally everywhere except in the UK."

In 1970, the Walker family sold their business to American food producer, Standard Brands. Nearly two decades later, in 1989, it was bought by Lay's owner, Frito-Lay, a division of PepsiCo.

While some reports suggest that Walkers retained its name in the UK because it was already a well-established brand, others argue that there are subtle differences between the two products.

• Pizza Hut is quietly bringing back it’s lunch buffet – but only in certain states
• 'I banned my friend from my party after she said my cat was too close to my cooking'

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 savory 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."

An intrigued Quora user shared their insight: "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."

Supporting this, a Reddit user chimed in: " 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."