Tayto's hegemony of the £120 million (€152.37 million) Irish snack foods market looks like it is facing a serious threat, with the decision by the Pepsico-owned Walkers Crisps to hand over the distribution rights for its crisps and other snacks to Malachy McCloskey's Boyne Valley Foods.
According to the latest edition of Checkout magazine, Walkers - which has used role models like Gazza in its advertising campaigns in Britain - plans to launch its eponymous brand of crisps in the Republic next month with a £3.5 million support budget.
When Tayto was put on the block by Beatrice Foods a year ago, Walkers was seen as one of the potential bidders for a brand which brought new meaning to the term "household name".
But at the end of the day, Walkers were not in the frame and Tony O'Brien's C & C beat off a management buyout bid to buy Tayto for £68 million.
That was seen as a reasonable price at the time, given Tayto's dominance of the market and despite a view in some quarters that C & C was buying a mature brand with limited growth potential.
An onslaught from a well-heeled rival such as Walkers might make it more difficult for Tayto to grow its business, although it will probably take one hell of a marketing effort for Walkers to eat into Tayto's dominance.