Pepsi launches papadams in south India

PepsiCo, the US food and beverages giant, is test-marketing wafer-style chips as a meal accompaniment in south India. The company’s move is aimed towards tapping the largely unorganised market for the popular lentil-based appetiser ‘papadam’.

The new product has been launched under its Lay's brand in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.

PepsiCo has taken inspiration from hand-made and home-dried crunchy ‘papad’, which is widely consumed with rice and rasam, dal or sambhar.

Dilen Gandhi, Senior Director, Marketing for foods category, PepsiCo India, said, “Lay’s has always been at the forefront of innovating with new formats and variants and our regionalisation strategy is a demonstration of our efforts to build a closer connect with our consumers.”

“With this launch, we have gone one step further by identifying everyday meal occasions as per regions and coming with a product that compliments the existing tastes and palates,” he further stated.