Market analysis: The most popular German potato chips

Both trips led to the founding of lucrative family businesses which became highly recognizable in the European snack industry: Intersnack Knabber-Gebäck GmbH & Co KG and Lorenz Bahlsen Snack-World GmbH & Co KG. Both companies hold several well-known brands.

By Barbara Zec

The privately owned Intersnack Group is one of the leading manufacturers of savory snacks in Europe. Their most popular potato-chips brands in Germany are Chio, funny-frisch and Pom-Bär.

Chio Chips was created in 1962 by the von Opel family. The name Chio originates from the first letters of their names: Carlo, Heinz and Irmgard von Opel.

“Girly” chips

Last year the company launched the Chio Exxtra Deep line with two new flavors, Sweet Chili and Grilled. This is a premium line with a very thick-, wavy-cut potato, packaged in very dark brownish-black bags – a somewhat unusual choice of color, but it gives the product a good, straightforward look.

Batch-fried chips

The story of funny-frisch, Intersnack’s most popular snack brand in Germany, started in 1968 with the introduction of the classic paprika-flavored “Chipsfrisch Hungarian-style potato chips”.

The first bag of classic Chipsfrisch was colored red and green. These colors were later applied on the funny-frisch logo, with white letters and border stroke.

Another funny-frisch brand is Kessel Chips, a newer brand in the kettle-type range of chips.