Lanson rolls out ready to eat snacks

Lanson Group, a leading automobile dealer and manufacturer and exporter of appalam (a thin disc-shaped food item), has ventured into the ready-to-eat snacks market with the roll out of Popodax brand of appalams.

“We are the pioneers in appalam manufacturing and have been exporting it to the U.K. for the last four decades. We have 80% market share in the U.K,” said M. Lankalingam, chairman and innovation head, Lanson Group. “For the last few decades, we have been supplying appalams to other brands for export to the U.K., Australia and South Africa. But, we did not have a brand of our own. This has been fulfilled today,” he said.

Lanson Group, which boasts of a group turnover of ₹1,000 crore, entered the domestic market for the first time with the roll out of Popodax, ready-to-eat snack in three variants in two pricing options.

Till date, Lanson group has invested more than ₹40 crore on five manufacturing plants, of which four are in Chennai. This year, it plans to invest another ₹20 crore on machinery, marketing and on workforce.

Over the next few days, Popodox will be made available in Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Salem and Tiruchi and in the second stage in the remaining 38 towns. “Over the next two to three years, we will cover the Southern states and later pan India,” said B. Nandakumar, chief mentoring officer, Lanson Value Added Services LLP.