Tayto Crisps is a

crisps A potato chip (North American English; often just chip) or crisp (British and Irish English) is a thin slice of potato that has been either deep frying, deep fried, baking, baked, or air frying, air fried until crunchy. They are commonly serve ...

and

popcorn Popcorn (also called popped corn, popcorns or pop-corn) is a variety of corn kernel which expands and puffs up when heated; the same names also refer to the foodstuff produced by the expansion. A popcorn kernel's strong hull contains the se ...

manufacturer in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

, founded by Joe Murphy in May 1954TaytoCrisps.ie
and owned by German snack food company Intersnack. Tayto invented the first flavoured crisp production process. The first seasoned crisps produced were Cheese & Onion. Companies worldwide sought to buy the rights to Tayto's technique. Tayto crisps are a cultural phenomenon throughout much of the Republic of Ireland, so much so that in November 2010, Tayto opened their own theme park called "

Tayto Park Emerald Park (), known from 2010 to 2022 as Tayto Park, is an amusement park in Ireland, originally themed based on the Irish potato crisp brand Tayto. It is located in the townland of Kilbrew, in County Meath and was founded by farmer-turned ...

" near Ashbourne. Tayto Crisps manufactured in the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. ...

should not be confused with Tayto in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is #Descriptions, variously described as ...

, which is a completely separate brand. The Northern Irish Tayto is widely sold in

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ga, Contae Dhún na nGall) is a county of Ireland in the province of Ulster and in the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Donegal in the south of the county. It has also been known as County Tyrcon ...

Ownership

The Republic of Ireland company Tayto was owned by Largo Foods. It was previously owned by Cantrell and Cochrane (C. & C), and was based in

Coolock Coolock () is a large suburban area, centred on a village, on Dublin city's Northside in Ireland. Coolock is crossed by the Santry River, a prominent feature in the middle of the district, with a linear park and ponds. The Coolock suburban are ...

County Dublin "Action to match our speech" , image_map = Island_of_Ireland_location_map_Dublin.svg , map_alt = map showing County Dublin as a small area of darker green on the east coast within the lighter green background of ...

, until their factory was closed in September 2005 and production was outsourced to Largo. Largo agreed to purchase the brand from C. & C. in May 2006 for €62.3 million. In 2015, Ray Coyle sold his remaining shares of Largo foods to German food company Intersnack, ending the Irish ownership of the company. In Northern Ireland, Tayto Limited is still owned and run by the Hutchinson family. The original Tayto crisp factory was founded in 1954 in Dublin by a local man known as Joe 'Spud' Murphy, who is credited with having invented the world's first flavoured crisp.

Brands

Tayto crisps come in several flavours: Cheese & Onion, Salt & Vinegar, Smokey Bacon, Prawn Cocktail, and the limited edition flavour Tex Mex.
In the early 2000s, the company targeted the healthy eating market, with its low salt, low fat crisps, originally branded as ''Honest''. Tayto currently refers to this range as the ''Happy & Healthy range''.

Marketing

Tayto has used its mascot, ''Mr Tayto'', in a number of marketing campaigns with previous endorsers such as

Westlife Westlife is an Irish pop vocal group formed in Dublin, Ireland in 1998. The group currently consists of members Shane Filan, Mark Feehily, Kian Egan, and Nicky Byrne. Brian McFadden was a member, until he left in 2004. The group temporar ...

. In the

2007 Irish General Election The 2007 Irish general election took place on Thursday, 24 May after the dissolution of the 29th Dáil by the President on 30 April, at the request of the Taoiseach. The general election took place in 43 parliamentary constituencies throughou ...

, Tayto ran an advertising campaign with Mr Tayto as a fake election candidate. Tayto claimed that the number of spoiled votes in the Carlow–Kilkenny constituency indicate that some actually voted for their mascot, but this is purely speculative. Tayto was fined during the campaign for littering, due to its fake election posters being posted in public places. In 2009 Tayto Ltd. published ''The Man Inside the Jacket'', a fictional autobiography of Mr Tayto written by Maia Dunphy, Ciaran Morrison and Mick O'Hara. Tayto indicated that a percentage of the cover price would go to Irish charity

Aware Awareness is the state of being conscious of something. More specifically, it is the ability to directly know and perceive, to feel, or to be cognizant of events. Another definition describes it as a state wherein a subject is aware of some inform ...

, which assists people affected by depression, bipolar disorder and related mood conditions. In May 2022 the Mr. Tayto mascot was removed from all Cheese & Onion packaging, and a "Where Is Mr. Tayto" tagline was added. Later that month, a statement was made from Mr. Tayto's official social media accounts which claimed that Mr. Tayto was taking a break from work to see the world, beginning the "Mr. Tayto's Bucket List" campaign.

Tayto Park

In November 2010, Tayto, in association with Ray Coyle, a local businessman, opened a theme park, "Tayto Park", near Ashbourne in County Meath In February 2022, it was announced that the existing title sponsorship contract would not be renewed, meaning that the park will begin trading under a new name when the existing contract expires in January 2023.

Legal action

In 2006, Tayto tried to compel Irish band

Toasted Heretic Toasted Heretic were an Irish rock group who attracted a cult following in the late 1980s and 1990s. They were founded in Galway in 1985, where singer and lyricist Julian Gough was studying English and philosophy. Their best known early indepe ...

to destroy all copies of their album ''Now in New Nostalgia Flavour'', which featured an image based on the trademarked "Mr Tayto" icon, although the image had been used since 1988 on Toasted Heretic's cassette album ''

Songs for Swinging Celibates A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetitio ...

''.

References

{{reflist

External links

TaytoMr Tayto's site
Brand name snack foods Food and drink companies established in 1954 Food and drink companies of Ireland Irish brands 1954 establishments in Ireland