DENVER — La Tortilla Factory has produced tortilla products for almost 50 years. Now with the help of its parent company Insignia International, La Tortilla will enter the refrigerated tortilla sector with the launch of its first two refrigerated tortilla products: sourdough and high protein. Insignia chief executive officer Jason Parasco said he believes that the new La Tortilla products could revitalize the stagnant refrigerated tortilla sector because it covers two trends that are dominating the marketplace: protein and gut health.
“Yeah, so this is a growing segment,” Parasco said. “It kind of started a few years back when Siete hit the marketplace, but it’s a stagnant category right now. There’s not a lot of new blood, new innovation going in there, and there’s two major trends that we’re seeing in the marketplace right now. We just came back from Expo West, maybe two, three weeks ago, and protein was pretty much at every single booth. So with the response to GLP-1s and people needing a little bit more protein in their diet if they’re on Ozempic or another form of that drug, protein is hitting almost every single category within the grocery aisle, and what we saw was this refrigerated tortilla segment was a little bit stagnant, had opportunity, and we developed an unbelievable protein item that really plays complement and brings back consumers to that refrigerated aisle.
“The other one is gut health is what we’ve seen from a trend perspective, so this is why we developed sourdough, and sourdough is an oncoming trend not only within restaurants and other industries as well. This is a huge opportunity for us to bring two brand new products that no one has in the refrigerated tortilla space and put La Tortilla Factory’s spin on it.”
In a March interview with Milling & Baking News, Parasco also discussed Insignia’s approach to selling refrigerated tortillas and the possibility of future refrigerated tortilla launches.
Parasco said the new refrigerated tortillas will stand out in the crowded marketplace because Insignia has already fostered a presence in the bakery section and will convince its loyal customers to buy the new products.
“The category (is) already established, first, right in refrigerated tortillas, and that was done by Siete a few years back, right?” Parasco said. “And we have a presence in the bakery section, so we’re going to use our loyal consumers and we have all kinds of data that say that the La Tortilla Factory consumer has been with us for a very long time, and they know that we stand for quality and a great tasting better-for-you product better than everyone else in the marketplace.
“There’s no chemical smells. It’s just a great product that’s shelf stable. We’re going to use our shelf-stable business to showcase to the consumers that, hey, we’re also too in the refrigerated section, and we don’t make a protein or a sourdough product currently, so this is going to be a new kind of innovation or evolution of the brand making our way into that new tortilla sect.”
Parasco also said he wanted La Tortilla’s refrigerated tortillas products to taste better than its competitors’ refrigerated tortilla products, even if the competition is small.
“I think you know my philosophy as CEO of the company is I will never launch anything that doesn’t taste phenomenally well,” Parasco said. “And we did, I believe, four iterations with a couple of different suppliers of either the protein source or we landed on a San Francisco-style sourdough versus some others that we try. And for me, it’s all about the experience and that tasting profile, and that’s one thing that separates Insignia, from other retailers. We will not be just launching a product in a markets that we think there’s a gap or that we can fill. We will put a superior product and be the new benchmark in that category.”
Even though the refrigerated tortillas have not all been “sold in” yet, Parasco said major natural retailers and a major club retailer are supposedly interested. When asked about the launch strategy for the new refrigerated tortillas, Parasco also said Insignia and La Tortilla will mainly promote the products through social media and temporary price reductions.
“Yeah, so they’re not all sold in yet, but we have really good indications that we have some major natural retailers and a major club retailer that is looking at taking these in, and the strategy is to bring people back to the shelf, so we’re going to target it through social media,” Parasco said. “I’m a big proponent of when you launch a product, you have to drive trial and awareness. So we’re going to have major promotions around driving consumers back into the refrigerated tortilla aisle in order to try our product, whether it be protein or whether it be sourdough, but we’re going to have on shelf displays with temporary price reductions to get people to try this product and I’ll tell you from the sweet smell of the protein tortilla to just the sheer great taste of sourdough, these are really phenomenal products, and I think will be the new benchmark once we enter the marketplace.”
When asked if Insignia and La Tortilla plan to launch more refrigerated tortillas in the future, Parasco said that both companies are waiting for the response to the recently launched products before promising anything else.
“Yeah, there’s an innovation pipeline, but you don’t throw 12 new SKUs in the marketplace and hope for which one kind of does the best,” Parasco said. “We want to make sure that this is a viable category for us to play in the future and helps incrementally grow the brand from an awareness standpoint, from a top-line sales perspective as well, before we decide to launch other variations. We have developed products that match the current competitor in that set, but we decided that we’re not going to launch that just yet, until we know that we’re going to be a staple in this new refrigerated sect permanently.”
Parasco said the new refrigerated tortillas products should hold 10 to 20% of the category share to be considered a success.
“If we could get within the retailers that we do launch in there, anywhere between 10 to 20% of the category share within the first year of our launch,” Parasco said. “I think that’s successful and I think that opens the door, not only for us to get more items within that sect and grow that category, but also, too, it just cements that La Tortilla Factory stands for a better-for-you product, and then it outweighs the competition, even If they’ve been in the set longer than us. So that’s the goal, within the first 12 months of us launching this product and actually getting it on shelf every day.”
