In the Largo Foods HQ, outside Ashbourne, Co Meath, boxes of crisps are waiting for dispatch to places such as Italy and California - all orders received online by Largo, the snack company headed by Ray Coyle which bought the Tayto brand from C&C back in 2006 for €62m. The orders don't have any significant impact on overall sales numbers, but do serve as a reminder that for Largo's business to grow, Mr Coyle and his team have to look outside Ireland, where Tayto's decades-long dominance has been eroded by Pepsico's Walkers crisps and Procter & Gamble's Pringles (although a UK court ruled this year that Pringles are not crisps due to their lower, 42% potato content -- a decision that will save P&G millions of euro a year in tax).Tayto did not adequately or rapidly respond to the threat from Walkers, which today has a 26% share of the Irish crisp market. The Largo group has a 47% share of the Irish crisp and snack market, with Tayto accounting for 28% of the crisp market, and King 11%. Largo's home-grown brands, including Hunky Dorys, do reasonably well with a 13% share of the crisp market, but it's Tayto that is so far demonstrating it could have the legs to travel much further afield than Europe.
Source: The Irish Independent
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