Industry Potato crisps Owner Largo Foods Headquarters Ashbourne, County Meath | Area served Ireland Founded 1954 Parent organization Largo Foods Limited | |
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Tayto Crisps is an Irish crisps and popcorn manufacturer, founded by Joe Murphy in 1954. Tayto invented the first flavoured crisp production process. Tayto crisps are a cultural phenomenon in Ireland, and "Tayto" is used by many people in Ireland, particularly in rural areas, as a metonym for crisps. In November 2010, Tayto opened their own theme park called "Tayto Park" near Ashbourne, County Meath.
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Ownership
The company Tayto is currently owned by Largo Foods. It was previously owned by Cantrell and Cochrane, and was based in Coolock, County Dublin, until their factory was closed in September 2005, when production was outsourced to Largo. Largo agreed to purchase the brand from C&C in May 2006 for €62.3 million.
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.
Tayto also produce a number of other ranges of products:
Nuts and Popcorn Range
Snacks Range
Happy and Healthy Range
Sharing Range
Marketing
Tayto have used their mascot, Mr. Tayto, in a number of marketing campaigns. In the 2007 Irish General Election, Tayto ran an advertising campaign with Mr. Tayto as a fake election candidate. Tayto have 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 were fined during the campaign for littering, due to their 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.
Tayto Park
In November 2010, Tayto opened a theme park, "Tayto Park" in Ashbourne, County Meath.
Legal action
In 2006, Tayto tried to compel Irish band Toasted Heretic 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.