ASIA – PepsiCo India’s salty snacks division has launched new variants of Twistkeen under its popular brand Kurkure to build its presence in the local space, an ET Retail report notes.
Developed in line with tastes and flavours similar to popular regional snacks such as Bikaneri bhujia, Andhra’s murukku and Shahi flavoured namkeens, Twistkeen is a baked namkeen which comes in three flavours.
The range creates a new category in the baked savoury snacks segment in the finger-food format, imbibing local ingredients and traditional flavours.
Alongside the launch, the beverage company is planning for a 360-degree marketing campaign, shop activations and product trials to back the new launch.
The company said that the products, featuring modern formats were developed by PepsiCo India with the support of its global and local R&D teams from three continents to retain the flavour of Indian traditional namkeens.
“We believe the new launch will play a critical role in enabling us to achieve our goal of doubling our salty snacks business over the next five years.
We are looking to create a new category in the salty snacks segment through Kurkure Twistkeen by following a strategy of re-imagining traditional snacks and offering them in a modern and convenient format with low salt content,” said Jagrut Kotecha, Vice-President, Snacks Category, PepsiCo India.
The two years’ extensive product development process was carried out the Indian R&D team in collaboration with PepsiCo’s global R&D teams in the US and Mexico.
PepsiCo plans to launch the product in the top 18 cities over the next 30-45 days, targeting urban consumers.
Commercial production of the new range will be carried out at its Pune factory, then retailed at modern trade stores, e-commerce and select traditional trade stores.
“Now that we have unlocked the baked traditional snacks technology, we can play with other local ingredients.
We are working on other variants as well as formats to expand this range,” Kotecha said.
According to the Hindu Businessline, the organised salty-snacks segment is pegged at US$3.05 billion and broadly divided into three segments, chips, extruded snacks and traditional snacks, estimated to be at about US$1.11 billion.
