We started life as The London Crisp Co.: bright bags with the city skyline on them, an unapologetically urban brand sold through independents who wanted an alternative to the same six labels on every shelf. We recruited Vinnie Jones as a brand ambassador and investor, gave him a signature flavour (Salt & Vinnie-gar, naturally), and got loud.
It worked. But the city branding got in the way. Pubs, cafés and clubs across the rest of the country wanted what we made; they just didn’t want a London bus on the bag. So in 2021 we rebuilt the brand from the ground up. Same independent-only distribution, same hand-cooked range, but tied to where the crisps actually come from rather than where the office used to be.
British, hand-cooked, renewable-powered.
Every potato in every packet of British Crisp Co. is British, grown on UK farmland, harvested in season and batch-cooked by hand in a fryer that runs entirely on renewable energy, generated on site from organic waste. No tankers, no convoluted supply chain, no overseas growers.
Two ranges. Different priorities.
We make crisps two ways, and we don’t apologise for it. Our Classic Range is the original line: Vegan Society certified, gluten-free, free from all fourteen major declarable allergens. Yeast-and-spice flavour seasonings, plant-based cheese powder, rice-flour vinegar. In foil packaging, for now.
Our Paper Range - the world’s first home-recyclable crisp packet - was reformulated with bigger, more authentic flavours: real mature cheddar in Cheese & Onion, real malt vinegar in Salt & Vinegar, buttermilk in Sweet Chilli. That means most of the Paper Range isn’t vegan and isn’t allergen-free. Sea Salt is the exception - just potatoes, oil and salt, true to both ranges.
We’d love a paper-stable vegan version of the lot. That’s the next project.
“Our crisps are never sold in supermarkets. Hopefully you’re reading this while sat in one of Britain’s brilliant pubs, hotels, restaurants or cafes. Cheers!”
From the back of every packet
The packet that actually recycles
Out of the billions of crisp packets the UK produces every year, almost every single one ends up in landfill or incinerators. Traditional plastic-aluminium film is, in plain English, unrecyclable: the layers can’t be separated, household recycling facilities can’t process it, and the bag you finish at lunchtime today is still around in fifty years.
In March 2024, after years of development, we launched a new packet that solves it. Standard paper on the outside, a biodegradable polymer resin called Hydropol, and a microscopic 30-nanometre layer of aluminium to keep the crisps fresh. It breaks down completely, with no microplastics, and earned the official OPRL “I’m paper, recycle me” designation. You pop it in your recycling bin, like you would a cereal box.
It won the Gama Innovation Award for Packaging. We’d rather just see them being recycled.
Anti-supermarket, on purpose
We don’t sell into Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrisons or the like. We never will. Our crisps go to independent pubs, cafés, hotels, sandwich shops and private members’ clubs: the venues that built British snacking in the first place. If you want a packet, find one at the bar of a proper local. We think that’s where they belong.
