Thins


Thins is one of the largest brands of savoury snack potato chips released in Australia and is owned by Snack Brands Australia. They are a thinly sliced variety of potato chip and come in a variety of flavours including Chicken, Original, Salt & Vinegar, "BBQ Ribs", "Cheese & Onion", Sour Cream & Chives" and Light & Tangy. They compete chiefly with Smith's Thinly Cut; another thinly sliced potato chip, along with various crinkle cut brands.
The Thins brand has undergone several ownership changes throughout its history. Originally owned by Arnott's the brand was sold to The Smith's Snackfood Company shortly after Arnott's was bought by the Campbell Soup Company in hostile takeover bid in 1997. Smith's in turn was purchased by PepsiCo and began to relabel the Thins brand jointly with Pepsi's own brand of thin potato chips, Lay's. They were sold under the moniker Thins: now known internationally as Lay's. Smith's later sold Thins to Snack Foods Limited, while continuing to produce their own line of potato chips under the Lay's brand name. For a while there were two competing lines of potato chips released in Australia which were effectively the same product, even sharing similar packaging since the Thins packet design was based on the Lay's packaging in North America. In 2002 Snack Foods Limited was purchased by Arnott's, and the Thins brand returned to the company which created it. Smith's produced a line of potato chips under the Lay's brand for a brief period of time until it was eventually rebranded as Smith's Crisps, while the traditional Smith's line was renamed Smith's Crinkle Cut. Thins is still sold in Australia as a direct competitor to Smith's Chips.