IN Brief:
- KP Snacks has opened a formal consultation tied to ending Tyrrells vegetable crisps.
- The Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, plant manufactures Tyrrells non-potato product lines.
- Tyrrells’ core potato crisp portfolio is expected to continue unchanged.
KP Snacks has entered a formal consultation process on a proposal to discontinue Tyrrells-branded vegetable crisps, a move that could lead to the closure of its Uttoxeter manufacturing site in Staffordshire.
The company has linked the proposal to a sustained decline in consumer demand for the Tyrrells vegetable crisps range, alongside the loss of key export volumes. The Uttoxeter operation is understood to be focused on Tyrrells’ non-potato lines, and KP Snacks has said the proposal is limited to the vegetable crisps portfolio rather than the wider Tyrrells brand.
KP Snacks has stated that no final decision has been made, and that the consultation is now underway. The company has also said it is supporting employees during the process and will explore options to reduce or avoid redundancies should the proposal proceed.
The Tyrrells brand sits within KP Snacks’ wider portfolio of savoury snack products, and the business operates as part of the Intersnack Group. Intersnack reached an agreement in 2018 for its KP Snacks business to acquire Tyrrells’ international portfolio of premium snack brands from The Hershey Company. That deal brought Tyrrells into a UK-based snacks group that already spans multiple manufacturing sites and brands across nuts, crisps, and other savoury formats.
KP Snacks has not set out a public timeline for consultation milestones in its statement. In operational terms, the key point is that Uttoxeter has been aligned with non-potato Tyrrells production, meaning the proposal concentrates potential changes into a specific product footprint rather than signalling a broader shift across Tyrrells potato crisps.
For now, the company’s position is that the Tyrrells potato crisp range remains outside the scope of the consultation, with the proposal centred on the future of the vegetable crisps line and the Staffordshire plant that supports it.
