Page 63 - Introduction & Preamble

In March 2010 David Milner, the former boss of Kettle Chips,

Australia joined Tyrrells. His immediate priority was to
improve distribution of the crisps in the UK, which were

then stocked in Waitrose, Sainsbury's and The Co-operative

Group.

Milner had a three-pronged strategy in mind:

• to get Tyrrells into all UK supermarkets
• international opportunities and

• to innovate e.g., develop premium snacks

However, tripling the size of the company in three years put

pressure on Tyrrells manufacturing. So, more machinery

and space had to be acquired and acquisition were
undertaken.

In 2012 nearly 30% of Tyrrells’ sales came from outside of

the UK. Within two years this was expected to rise to 50%.

Part of the reason for this lay with the exchange rate which

benefited the company.

Tyrrells is no longer a small, niche producer of premium
potato chips. The business has grown rapidly since it was

bought by Langholm Capital. Its products are now available

in most of Europe, Russia, India, China and the US.

Moreover, Milner changed the focus away from ‘chips’ and

towards ‘crisps’ becoming ‘Tyrrells Crisps’.