Most of our taste buds love cramming nachos while watching our favorite movies or as our evening snack and one of the most famous brands of Nachos is Cornitos but do you know the story behind this Indian snack brand giving a Desi twist to this Mexican snack.
Cornitos was started by Vikram Agarwal in 2009 following a business trip to the USA in 2008 when he tasted the nachos for the first one.
Speaking in an interview about the beginning of the company in an interview with YourStory, “In India, traditional namkeen still ruled people’s taste buds. I studied the Indian snack market and found a gap between the ubiquitous Indian namkeen and Western potato chips. This gap could be filled by tortilla chips or nacho crisps,”
Vikram has established Greendot Health Foods in Faridabad in the year 2009, and under this firm, he started making nachos under the brand name of Cornitos. The technical know-how for production was procured from a Californian equipment maker and set up a fully automated production machinery in Roorkee.
Initially, the brand sold nachos in five flavors, namely, jalapeno, tomato, sea salt, tikka masala, and cheese and herb.
Cornitos Unique Selling Point lies in the fact that “the nachos are gluten-free, cooked in corn oil, and manufactured by a Mexican lime treatment process of making traditional masa (maize dough) using stone-ground, non-GMO corn.”
Presently, market share wise Cornitos is India’s leading nachos brand. As of 2019, Cornitos has captured sixty percent of the market share in the domestic territory as it continues to expand and grow. The brand exports its products to China, Singapore, the USA, Australia, UAE, and some other nations.
The brand’s product bouquet includes nacho crisps, chunky salsa dips, cheesy dips, roasted premium nuts, taco shells, etc.
Adding on the future course of action and the recovery process in the post COVID era, he mentions in an interview, “The main challenge after lockdown will be addressing the broken supply chain to procure raw material. Our production unit will have to bring process efficiency at a micro-level through cost control on consumables, as well as control process waste, process automation, ensure breakdown prevention, and increase production efficiency,”
