Relaunching PepsiCo India’s snack Kurkure with brand new wrapper detailing ingredients and expanding range of flavours has significantly improved the growth of the brand, says a company official.

The recent relaunch was an attempt to dispel rumours that Kurkure was made of plastic.

Addressing media persons at the PepsiCo snack manufacturing facility in Pune, Jagrut Kotecha, Vice President, Snacks Category, said though the rumour did not have any significant impact on the sales, the “company could not grow faster.”

To increase consumer confidence, the relaunch took into account changing consumer preferences, focused audience and visual representation of ingredients that goes into making Kurkure. In a consumer research conducted by the company it found that people are eating less spicy food now than few years ago. Kotecha said, “So we launched products that were less spicy.”

To further strengthen its share in salty snack category in India, the company will introduce more products with regional flavours and ingredients. Salty snack category in India accounts for about ₹19,000 crore growing at the rate of 12 per cent YoY. The company’s flagship brands Kurkure and Lays accounts for over ₹2000 crore in the snack category.

Another focus area for the company is Doritos under nacho chips category that is growing at the rate of 35-40 per cent in India. Recently the company invested ₹100 crore to put up the Doritos manufacturing line in the Kolkata plant. Kotecha said though the category is nascent in India, it has a good growth potential here.

While North and East are evolved markets for the company, it is a growing category in South and West. “We want to growth our category there and make it more relevant,” Kotecha added.