[12][13][14] In 1966, parent company Smith's was purchased by American food manufacturer General Mills and a year later work was started on expanding the factory at Peterlee at a cost of £750,000.
[15][16][17] The 1970s television advertisements featured a paper boy, bribed with a ‘canny bag of crisps’ to brave delivering his papers to a tall tower block (in reality Derwent Tower, Dunston, Tyne and Wear).
In the 1980s, the ads gave cult status to their star, Allen Mechen, who played the adult paperboy who returned as an apparently successful and wealthy man, driving a Rolls-Royce car and eating a bag of Tudor Crisps.
[21] In 1988, RJR Nabisco was purchased in a leverage buyout by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, and to reduce debt several business were sold to French conglomerate BSN, who quickly sold on Smith's and Walkers to PepsiCo in 1989.
[24] The factory was purchased by Heather Mills in 2018, and in 2022 reopened as the home of vegan snack business VBites.