THE savoury snacks that put a North-East former steel town back on the map are undergoing a major relaunch.

The Phileas Fogg brand is ditching its existing flavours and bringing out a new range designed to tickle consumers' taste buds and take it "from the 20th to the 21st Century" .

Derwent Valley Foods, which made the snacks before it was bought by United Biscuits, used to use its factory's location in Medomsley Road, Consett, County Durham, in its TV advertising.

"We are doing away with all the existing products and introducing new flavours, a new packet design and new bases," said Phileas Fogg shift team manager Pat Rooney, who has worked for the firm since 1983, a year after it set up.

"It is about moving Phileas Fogg into the 21st Century. The market for adult snacks was growing but Phileas Fogg wasn't growing with it. We have our core consumers but we are working to get more sales from new people.''

The brand's exotically flavoured tortilla chips became a firm favourite with snack buyers and the firm grew from humble beginnings to employ 230 people today.

But other manufacturers have looked at the brand's success and produced their own versions.

Mr Rooney said existing flavours would be replaced in the coming months.

"Our head office employed chaps to look at what people were eating in restaurants and that's how we came up with the new range," said Mr Rooney.

It also sent employees to India, Italy, Thailand and Mexico in search of new ideas.

"We have got new packets featuring pictures of people from the countries we have visited, and our people. There won't be a picture of old Phileas.

"Medomsley Road will still feature heavily on the packet.

"We are hoping to grow quicker than the market so I'd imagine we are going for at least 20 per cent growth."

Phileas Fogg is the central character of Jules Verne's 1872 novel Around the World in Eighty Days, which chronicles an English gentleman's adventures as he travels the globe to win a £20,000 bet.