The credit crunch might still be biting, but Bradford-based Seabrook Crisps has just had very tasty record sales returns.

In the first week of July, in spite of the recession, the Dunscombe Road company sold 142,000 boxes – or 6.8 million packets – of the famous crinkle-cut crisps.

Managing director John Tague said: “Every business we deal with is up 30 to 50 per cent at the moment.

“At the end of August we start selling into 50 Waitrose stores in the South.

“We used to sell 120 million packets of crisps a year. In the next 12 months we want to do 370m packets.

“Nationally, the crisps market is declining by about two per cent, but we are growing at 73 per cent.

“The hot news off the press is that Aston Villa and Sheffield Wednesday football clubs have just agreed to take our crisps. Manchester United already do.

“Bradford City don’t because they buy in supplies from another company.

“The deal with Aston Villa and Sheffield Wednesday means that thousands more football fans will be trying our crisps.

He agreed that comfort-eating only partly explains Seabrook’s lip-smacking success story.

“More people are eating at home or going on picnics and a packet of crisps is picnic food,” he said.

“Also we now sell into Asda nationally, which we weren’t doing last year.

“We are hoping to do a deal with another major supermarket that will mean selling into all its outlets nationally.”