In February 2020, social media was in a frenzy as Lay's South Africa announced that it had discontinued its salt and vinegar flavour crisps.
The news broke after a consumer asked the company why she couldn't find her favourite flavour on supermarket shelves.
@LailaManie tweeted the company asking if they had discontinued the salt and vinegar flavour flavour because she can’t seem to find it anywhere.
In a response, Lay’s South Africa said that it had discontinued the flavour and would no longer be available in the market. They suggested she try a new flavour.
“Hi @LailaManie, unfortunately, Lay’s salt and vinegar flavour has been discontinued and will no longer be available in the market. We however invite you to try our new Lay’s sweet and smoky American BBQ flavour. We do hope you enjoy our other flavours from our range too,” they wrote.
Speaking to Martin Bester on the Breakfast Show on Jacaranda FM last year, Lay's brand manager Wesley Chetty said they randomly do research and dig into insights to understand what are the optimal flavours that need to be in the wave range, and sometimes flavours don’t perform well as others in the range.
“We did our research and sometimes flavours do not perform - and we had to discontinue the flavour. We have to listen to our customers and we made the decision, said Chetty.
A year after Lay's salt & vinegar flavour was discontinued in South Africa, it appears the flavour has popped up again on some store shelves.
This is according to several social media users who have been posting snaps of the crisps on their timelines announcing that they are back.
Facebook user Mekhail Nielsen posted snaps of himself carrying multiple packets of the crisps at a food retailer with the caption: “My fellow South Africans, we have done it. Guess who's back", he wrote.
MY FELLOW SOUTH AFRICANS ❤ WE HAVE DONE IT 😭![CDATA[]]>🤣 GUESS WHO'S BACK 😍 Lay's South Africa
Twitter user @GlendaAphane also posted a snap of the crips and wrote: “Yall, Salt and Vinegar Lays are back!!! (heart emojis)”
Yall, Salt and Vinegar Lays are back!!! ❤❤❤ pic.twitter.com/kSBgRTWXOx
— Apha-neh (@GlendaAphane) February 13, 2021
We have sent comment requests to Lay’s South Africa and at the time of publishing, there has been no response.