 | |
| Industry | Snack |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2007 |
| Founder |
|
| Headquarters | Delaware, United States |
| Owner | VSB OpCo, LLC |
| Website | popchips |
Popchips, stylized 'popchips' is an American brand of popped potato and corn products marketed as similar to potato chips. They are manufactured by processing potato starch at high pressure and temperature, in a process similar to that used for puffed rice cakes. [1]
Keith Belling is a co-founder and CEO of Popchips which was created in 2007. Belling teamed up with Patrick Turpin, and created a new popped chip. [2] The company created a chip that utilizes potato and corn products that are cooked at a high pressure and temperature. [3] Turpin co-founded Popchips, Inc., and serves as its President.
In November, 2015 David Ritterbush was named CEO of the company, replacing Paul Davis. [4]
The company was rated by Forbes as among America's top 20 most promising companies in 2011. [5] Forbes also reported that investors in the company included Ashton Kutcher, David Ortiz, Jillian Michaels, and Sean Combs. [6]
Popchips received widespread criticism for their May 2012 video ad campaign featuring actor Ashton Kutcher. [7] The campaign featured Kutcher as an Indian man 'looking for love' in a dating ad-style spoof. Kutcher's use of brown-face make up and a stereotypical Indian accent was deemed racially insensitive and offensive and received backlash from online viewers and members of the Indian-American community. [8]
Ashton Kutcher was the first celebrity to endorse the company, with 13 million followers on Twitter. Kutcher boosted the publicity of Popchips. [9] In 2012, Popchips also gained another celebrity endorser, Katy Perry. Since 2012, Perry featured in advertisements and also helped to launch her own flavour of Popchips, Katy's Kettle Corn. [10]
Since 2007, Popchips has won the following awards: [11]
One of the 8 Most Addicting Foods - Yahoo! Shine
Popchips provides its snack through a network of retail stores including Target, Safeway, and Walgreens [12] in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland and also online.
Popchips are produced in a number of flavors in addition to the original flavor:
Potato
Potato Ridges
A potato chip or crisp is a thin slice of potato that has been deep fried, baked, or air fried until crunchy. They are commonly served as a snack, side dish, or appetizer. The basic chips are cooked and salted; additional varieties are manufactured using various flavorings and ingredients including herbs, spices, cheeses, other natural flavors, artificial flavors, and additives.
Doritos is an American brand of flavored tortilla chips produced by Frito-Lay, a wholly owned subsidiary of PepsiCo. The concept for Doritos originated at Disneyland at a restaurant managed by Frito-Lay.
Christopher Ashton Kutcher is an American actor, producer and entrepreneur. Kutcher began his acting career portraying Michael Kelso in the Fox sitcom That '70s Show (1998–2006). He made his film debut in the romantic comedy Coming Soon (1999), followed by the comedy film Dude, Where's My Car? (2000), which was a box office success. In 2003, Kutcher starred in the romantic comedies Just Married and My Boss's Daughter. That year, he created and produced the television series Punk'd, also serving as host for the first eight of its ten seasons. Kutcher starred in the science fiction film The Butterfly Effect (2004) and had a voice role in Open Season (2006).
Pringles is an American brand of stackable potato-based chips invented by Procter & Gamble (P&G) in 1968 and marketed as "Pringle's Newfangled Potato Chips". It is technically considered an extruded snack because of the manufacturing process. The brand was sold in 2012 to Kellanova, but in 2024 Kellanova, Kellogg's parent company agreed to be purchased by Mars Inc.
Lay's is a brand of potato chips with different flavors, as well as the name of the company that founded the chip brand in the United States. The brand is also referred to as Frito-Lay, as both Lay's and Fritos are brands sold by the Frito-Lay company, which has been a wholly owned subsidiary of PepsiCo since 1965. Frito-Lay primarily uses the brand name "Lay's" in the United States and Canada, and uses other brand names in some other countries, such as Walkers in the UK and Ireland, and Smith's in Australia.
The Smith's Snackfood Company is a British-Australian snack food brand owned by the American multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation PepsiCo. It is best known for its brand of potato crisps. The company was founded by Frank Smith and Jim Viney in the United Kingdom in 1920 as Smith's Potato Crisps Ltd, originally packaging a twist of salt with its crisps in greaseproof paper bags which were sold around London. The dominant brand in the UK until the 1960s when Golden Wonder took over with Cheese & Onion, Smith's countered by creating Salt & Vinegar flavour which was launched nationally in 1967.
Sun Chips is a brand of fried, rippled, multigrain chips launched in 1991 and produced by Frito-Lay.
Botan Rice Candy is a specific brand of a category of Japanese candy called bontan ame (ボンタンアメ). Bontan ame are soft, chewy, citrus-flavored candy with an outer layer of rice paper or Oblaat. The rice paper is clear and plastic-like when dry, but it is edible and dissolves in the mouth. This candy was invented by Seika Foods in 1924. During this period, more and more Western-style sweets were becoming popular in Japanese society, and the appearance of this type of candy is intentionally similar to Western-style caramel candies. In Japan, these candies are sold as Dagashi, cheap candies and snacks marketed to Japanese schoolchildren, and are often in small sizes with bright colorful packaging with stickers or prizes included.
Humpty Dumpty Snack Foods is an American food company, operating as a subsidiary of Old Dutch Foods, that packages and sells snack foods. The company is named after the nursery rhyme character and features the character as the company logo. Humpty Dumpty products are generally sold in New England, Quebec and Atlantic Canada.
Diamond Foods, Inc. was an American packaged food company based in San Francisco, that marketed nuts and other snack foods. Diamond Foods was acquired by Snyder's-Lance in 2016, and as of 2018, Campbell Soup Company owns Diamond Foods's former snack brands; Diamond of California, Diamond Foods's nut business, is owned by Blue Road Capital.
Herr's is an American brand of potato chips and other snack foods produced and marketed by eponymous private American company Herr Foods Inc. based in Nottingham, Pennsylvania. Their products are sold primarily throughout the Eastern United States and Canada and they have a stronghold in the Mid-Atlantic region. Their products are sold in all 50 American states and in over 40 countries.
Red Hot Riplets are a kind of spicy potato chips sold in St. Louis, Missouri. Red Hot Riplets are ridge-cut chips covered with hot chili pepper and sweet barbecue powdered seasoning. The label describes the flavoring as "St. Louis Style Hot Sauce".
Axium Foods, LLC., is a manufacturer of corn-based snack products, including plain and flavored tortilla chips, corn chips, puffed cheese snacks, and crunchy cheese snacks.
Shearer's Foods, LLC is a U.S. manufacturer and distributor of snack foods. Founded in 1974 as Shearer's Snacks, it is headquartered in Brewster, Ohio.
Frito-Lay, Inc. is an American subsidiary of PepsiCo that manufactures, markets, and sells corn chips, potato chips, and other snack foods. The primary snack food brands produced under the Frito-Lay name include Fritos corn chips, Cheetos cheese-flavored snacks, Doritos and Tostitos tortilla chips, Lay's and Ruffles potato chips, Rold Gold pretzels, and Walkers potato crisps. Each brand generated annual worldwide sales over $1 billion in 2009.
Takis are a Mexican brand of flavored rolled tortilla chips produced by Barcel, a subsidiary of Grupo Bimbo since 2019. Fashioned after the taquito, it comes in numerous flavors, the best selling of which is the chili-lime "Fuego" flavor, sold in distinctive purple bags, introduced in 2006. Besides the rolled corn chips, Takis produces other snacks with the same flavor lines, including different potato chip varieties, corn "stix", popcorn, and peanuts.
Elma Chips is a Brazilian snacks company and its main industrial unit is in Curitiba, capital of the Brazilian state of Paraná. The company is managed by Frito-Lay, a subsidiary of the American branch of PepsiCo.
Jagarico is a family of salty snack products made primarily from processed fried potatoes. Introduced in 1995 by Calbee, Jagarico could be described as rod-shaped potato chips. According to Barabara Zec, they "have a similar appearance to French fries."