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Last February, Dua Lipa posted a photo of a supermarket shopping basket to Instagram. Inside she’d placed a yellow Louis Vuitton Speedy handbag – and three packets of crisps from the Brittany-based brand Brets.
The French were already obsessed with Brets: last year the family-owned brand overtook Lay’s to become France’s favourite crisp, with a market share of nearly 27 per cent. Lipa’s post helped push the brand onto the global stage. George Hess, founder of Victus Emporium, which handles Brets’ UK imports, says its social media was “bombarded” after the post. He also says the brand has seen 40-50 per cent controlled growth year on year since it was first stocked four years ago. In 2025, Brets’ revenue was €187mn.
The Brets story started in 1991, when agriculture entrepreneur Alain Glon founded a potato supply chain to promote local varieties and provide an extra source of income for the area’s growers. (Alongside cider and salted caramel, Brittany produces great spuds.) Initially the potatoes were sold to other crisps brands, but soon Glon started cooking up his own. Four years later, the first flavour was born: poulet braisé (braised chicken).
Today there are more than 40 flavours to choose from including tagine, tartiflette and wood-fired pizza. “We add between four and eight new flavours each year,” says Anne-Laure Battini, Brets’ head of comms. Aïoli, pesto mozzarella and honey mustard are among the UK’s favourites varieties.
It’s not all about the novelty flavours, though; it’s also about the engineering. Brets’ crisps have the shallow ridges of a fine-tooth comb, a bold but easy-yielding crunch and flavours that hit your palate as soon as you open the bag. The quality starts with the potatoes, which are still sourced exclusively from France (and largely Brittany). They are also entirely free from flavour enhancers, artificial colours and sweeteners. Seasoning comes from local mineral-rich Guérande salt.
You’ll find Brets in all major French supermarkets – usually for just over a euro a bag. They’re available in 17 countries, from Australia to Taiwan. With a second Brets factory having opened in Brittany in April, the hope is that the brand will soon be able to cast its net further.
In the UK, a country that consumes more crisps, crackers and nuts than any other European nation, Brets is yet to achieve mainstream status. But already its crisps are stocked at more than 800 independent retailers – from farm shops to Selfridges – and are finding their way into bars and restaurants. Charles Cornelius, founder of Sheffield bar Barks, pairs them with different wines and serves them by the bag. He suggests eating the butter flavour with a rich, oaky white, such as a chardonnay from Polish winery Niemczańska. “I need a storage room full of [them],” he says of the butter variety, sales of which are up by more than 600 per cent at specialist retailer Sous Chef. “People are coming back just for [them]: I struggle to keep them in stock.” Impressive, given that he charges £5 a bag. According to Cornelius, people have “no qualms” paying that.
Meanwhile, at Naughty Piglets in Brixton, south London, the house snack is a plate of salted butter Brets topped with Oscietra Caviar. “They’re the best vessel caviar could wish for,” says owner Margaux Aubry.
