AirAsia’s North foray opens new market for Greendot Foods

AirAsia’s first push into North India early next month has got many of its patrons excited. For Vikram Agarwal, the Founder of Greendot Health Foods that makes Cornitos chips, the budget carrier’s latest route is set to open up a whole new market for his corn tortillas.

AirAsia India currently operates flights on the Kochi-Bangalore-Chennai-Goa routes.

Cornitos, a flavoured tortilla corn chip brand, is the flagship brand of GreenDot Health Foods. The chips maker has entered into a partnership with AirAsia to serve the nachos on all its domestic flights.

“From September 5, AirAsia will start flights from Bangalore to Jaipur and Bangalore to Chandigarh. The new route is very exciting, not just because our products will soon be available in North India. An Indian product would soon compete with multinational Pepsi's Lay's potato chips,” said Agarwal.

He told BusinessLine that the initiation was done this month. “The menu on AirAsia this month includes our nacho chips. Available in cans with a cheesy dip, the airline has introduced it on the Bangalore, Chennai, Goa and Kochi sector.”

For Agarwal, the decision to move away from the family business has stood him in good stead.

Part of the ₹100-crore Globe Capacitors Group, which makes capacitors and electric grade MPP films, GreenDot Health Foods was established in 2009.

“Our family business is manufacturing capacitors. We have seen good growth in the white goods and appliances market, especially with multinationals coming to India,” said Agarwal, who chanced on tortilla chips for the first time on his visit to the US.

“Doritos from the Frito Lay brand is one of the leaders in the US. It is considered a healthier snacking option since it uses corn instead of potato. Realising their lead in the market, it inspired me to look at a similar business model,” he said.

“Looking at hygiene and manufacturing by 2008, we had established a pilot kitchen line in Faridabad at ₹20 lakh. We test-marketed the product and saw the positive response and launched it in 2009,” Agarwal added.

The company went in for a bigger investment of ₹20 crore, and set up a 1,800 tonnes a year plant in Uttarakhand.

“Investment was not a problem, but the market was not there. Product acceptability was a big question mark, given the raw taste buds. We decided to focus on modern trade to market our product,” he said.

The brand was made available across Spencer’s, EasyDay, Hypercity, Big Bazaar and Nilgiris. Currently, Agarwal said, Cornitos is growing at 40 per cent annually and has cornered 80 per cent market share in the nacho chips category. The brand operates in tier I and II cities through a network of over 10,000 distributors and is following a rapid expansion plan in tier III cities and towns.

The company decided to focus on airlines to take the product ahead.

The company started with five Indianised flavours and now has nine flavours, as well as an international range of Japanese Wasabi, Thai high chili and Africa peri peri.

With 70 per cent revenue from retail trade in India, and the rest from exports, Agarwal said Cornitos is one of the few companies to export food to China.

Noting that there were many migrants from potato chips to corn chips, he said GreenDot Health Foods is ready to invest another ₹20 crore to set up a second automated line in Rorkee in Uttarakhand, with a capacity to produce 1,800 tonnes of the chips a year.