Walkers has third highest sales in the UK

Walkers crisps has been named as the third most popular brand in Britain in an annual UK grocery survey, reported the Press Association.

Walkers had sales of £590.9 million, up 4.2 per cent and was only beten by Coca-Cola and Warburtons.

Sales of Coca Cola were up 8.3 per cent last year to £1,090.4 million, according to figures compiled for The Grocer magazine's Britain's 100 Biggest Brands annual survey.

Warburton's held on to its place as the second-highest selling brand with sales of £742.4 million, up 1.5 per cent.

Coca-Cola's top placing follows it cutting back its UK range to just Coke, Diet Coke and Coke Zero over the past two years in response to the weakened economy.

The Robert Wiseman dairies Black and White range was the brand to grow the most, up 19.1% to £156.5 million in sales, taking it to 36th place.

The Grocer editor Adam Leyland said: "You mess with a winning formula at your peril. And the perilous economy has persuaded many of Britain's biggest brands to play it safe, most notably Coca-Cola, the biggest of them all."