Pringles is a popular potato and rice flavored snack chips manufactured and marketed by a global manufacturing corporation, Procter and Gamble. Pringles is sold in more than 140 countries worldwide and earns annual revenue of over $1 billion. Pringles come in a distinctive can coated with aluminum. The brand logo depicts a character sporting a large bushy mustache and is prominently displayed. The standard flavors are Original, Cheese, BBQ, Hot and Spicy, Sour Cream and Onion, and Cheese and Onion.
Potato chips are a fairly new cooking invention. An American chef George Speck invented them in New York in 1853. Restaurants and pretzel companies were selling salted potato chips as snacks by the turn of the century. A mechanical potato peeler was invented in the 1920s. Before that, potato chips were peeled by hand. Sales of potato chips nationally occurred in 1930s and they were common in store shelves after the Second World War.
Alexander Liepa who was an American was working for the US Army invented a potato chip that was not peeled and cut and was made from potato flakes. The idea was to create a snack that could be made easily in remote US bases. Liepa took his patent to Procter & Gamble in 1968 that supported his recipe. This resulted in creation of a product named Pringle’s Newfangled Potato Chips.
P&G workers have mentioned that the name Pringles was picked for its similarity with a street called Pringle Street in Finneytown – Ohio. This was because the name was appealing. The marketing staff of P&G believed that that would have no trouble in introducing Pringles as the name was easy to pronounce and remember.
For producing Pringles, new machinery and techniques were required involving mixing of rice flour, potato flakes, water and other ingredients. When smooth dough is made, it is cut in to thin round pieces, placed in baking trays are then fried very quickly in a machine. Seasoning is also quickly added before the chips are sent to a stacking machine that packs the chips in distinctive Pringles containers.
The distinctive can used for packaging Pringles is specially designed. Pringle chips are not like regular chips and are very delicate. They can be crushed easily so a special container is needed for storing them. Fredric Baur who worked in the food storage department of P&G came up with the idea to develop a container. He designed a foil lined can made by rolling lengths of cardboard into a cylindrical tube. This protected the chips which are stacked. The aluminum foil in the can prevents the air from entering inside keeping the chips fresh.
In the beginning, Pringles were only sold in selected regions close to Cincinnati. However the chips were marketed globally by 1976. Pringles have a unique taste that is less harsh than regular potato chips. Market research by P&G suggested that this made Pringles chips much easier to eat. The recipe for Pringles chips places the snack in a different tax category as regular chips.