A ridged crisp, an old idiom and a snack company from Rotherham.

McCoy’s is a thick, ridge-cut crisp sold in Britain by KP Snacks. KP dates the brand to 1985: its brand page says McCoy’s was “first launched way back in 1985,” and the McCoy’s website, which carries a KP Snacks copyright line, says the brand was “born in 1985.” English Wikipedia gives the same year, citing the company’s own story page. The name plays on the old phrase “the real McCoy,” meaning the genuine article, and the brand’s long-running line has been “The Real McCoy’s – Accept No Imitations,” English Wikipedia says.

The company behind it is older than the crisp by more than a century. English Wikipedia, citing KP’s own history, says KP began in Rotherham in 1853 as Kenyon & Son, a maker of confectionery, jam and pickles; the letters KP stand for “Kenyon Produce.” The firm turned to roasted and salted nuts after the Second World War and introduced its KP Nuts peanut brand in 1953. In 1968 it became part of United Biscuits, the McVitie’s owner, and its snacks business grew to include Hula Hoops, Skips, Nik Naks, Discos and McCoy’s.

Under United Biscuits, McCoy’s was given a clear target. An archived United Biscuits brand page from 2011, cited by English Wikipedia, promoted it “as the only overtly male-targeted crisp brand.” The range also widened beyond the ridged crisp: English Wikipedia says McCoy’s Specials Tortillas, a ridged tortilla chip, followed in 2006, and McCoy’s Jackets, ridge-cut chips with the skins left on, in early 2007; the tortillas were relaunched under the name MUCHOS in 2019. McCoy’s also put its name on sport, sponsoring the Premier League Darts in 2012 and 2013, English Wikipedia says.

A sans-serif redraw, a pack concept and a furry beast.

McCoy’s design history is documented mainly through the trade press. In June 2015 KP revealed what The Drum called the first major rebrand of the crisp in several years, by the London branding agency Coley Porter Bell. The aim, The Drum reported, was to appeal to the “modern man” and stand out on the shelf. The McCoy’s logo was recrafted in a cleaner style, its typography switched from serif to sans-serif, the colours of the old packs were overhauled, and a textured “spotlight” was placed at the centre of the design. Coley Porter Bell’s design director Craig Barnes told the magazine that the new sans-serif letterforms and the gold detailing around them were meant to feel robust and timeless. The Drum gave McCoy’s retail sales value at the time as £108 million, citing Nielsen.

Two years earlier, in 2013, the agency BTL Brands had published a concept that drew wide attention on design blogs: it turned the bag on its side so that it opened along the longer edge, letting bigger hands reach in. The design blog The Coolector presented it in September 2013 as the agency’s vision of how the brand could look, and English Wikipedia also records the concept.

The packs were refreshed again in August 2021. Neighbourhood Retailer reported that the update kept the familiar look but added more vibrant colours, a patterned design and the tagline “Full On Flavour” across the core flavours, among them Salted, Cheddar & Onion and Salt & Malt Vinegar. KP said at the time that McCoy’s was the number one ridged crisp brand and the top meal-deal choice, citing Nielsen and Kantar figures.

The advertising found a mascot that year. In February 2021 KP launched a new creative platform for all McCoy’s brand advertising, built around a cheeky, mischievous “beast” standing for extreme flavour cravings, whose long arm reaches into everyday scenes to grab a pack, Grocery Trader reported. The tagline was “Don’t Deny the Beast,” and the first £2 million campaign supported the Fire Pit range of barbecue flavours, which, The Grocer reported in April 2022, left the shelves after about a year.

Seven savoury snack brands, one question of who makes them.

The seven brands in this group are savoury snack and crisp brands, mostly British, with one global sister brand: Hula Hoops, Monster Munch, Quavers, Wotsits, McCoy’s, Burts and Lay’s. Snack brands in general sit at many different points in the trade, from small makers that still carry a founder’s name to names that now belong to much larger food groups, and a single brand can be sold everywhere from a corner shop to a supermarket aisle.

A snack brand’s identity is usually carried less by a single product than by a pack, a name and the shape or flavour it promises, because the company behind the name may have changed hands, moved its factory or grown far beyond the town where it started. That makes the questions behind each name worth asking plainly: who started it, who owns it now, and where its snacks are actually made and packed.

Each guide separates what independent sources record from what the company says about itself — its founding story, its owners over time, where its snacks are made and how its packaging has changed — and marks plainly what rests only on the company’s own word.

A German owner, a Teesside factory and a new agency.

McCoy’s changed owners with the rest of KP. In December 2012 United Biscuits agreed to sell KP Snacks to the German snack group Intersnack, and the Teesside Gazette and the Manchester Evening News reported a price of more than £500 million. The Gazette said the deal covered KP’s nut and crisp brands, including McCoy’s and Hula Hoops, that KP then employed around 1,500 people, and that completion was expected in 2013. Intersnack’s executive chairman Maarten Leerdam spoke of the “significance of acquiring a part of British heritage.” KP Snacks moved its head office to Slough in 2015, English Wikipedia says.

The crisps are made in the north-east of England. The Teesside Gazette reported in 2012 that KP had a large factory in Billingham making McCoy’s, and in 2014 that around 685 people worked there producing McCoy’s alongside Roysters, Frisps, Wheat Crunchies and Discos. KP says the Teesside site is its largest; in May 2019 it opened a new £6 million facility there as the site marked its 50th anniversary. Trade press reports in February 2026 again placed McCoy’s production at Billingham.

The brand’s marketing has kept moving. In October 2023 KP appointed the agency Iris as lead agency for McCoy’s after a competitive pitch, taking over from Engine, with a brief to develop a new brand proposition and an integrated campaign for 2024, Decision Marketing reported. KP gave the brand’s standing then as the third-biggest bagged-crisp brand in Britain, with five million packets eaten each week and the number one place among ridged crisps. In January 2025 it ran a “Bank of McCoy’s” on-pack promotion, with a QR code to scan on price-marked packs and grab bags, Talking Retail reported.

For a design guide, McCoy’s shows how a single texture, the ridge, and an old phrase about authenticity can carry a crisp through decades of pack redesigns. Compare Hula Hoops, its KP Snacks stablemate, and Burts, a hand-cooked Devon crisp. For this guide we use charcoal, a flame red and a ridge gold with a condensed sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

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