Giving all-time favourite snacks a healthy makeover

Besides its flagship popped chips products, TagZ also makes dips as well as healthy confectionery such as dark chocolate “CigarZ”. The brand’s name ties into the primary target audience which is the urban Generation Z population (or GenZ).

During his extensive international travel, TagZ cofounder Anish Basu Roy realised that the Indian market was quite a few years behind the West when it comes to healthy snacks or packaged food. Roy says he found it appalling that India’s consumers did not have anything fit to replace fried fatty snacks, which led to TagZ.

TagZ is currently going at an annual revenue rate of INR 15 Cr. It claims to have catered to 30 Mn+ consumers and sold 50 Mn+ potato chips packets since launch. The brand recently pitched on the maiden season of Shark Tank India, where it bagged funding from Ashneer Grover and Namita Thapar. Besides investors and angels, the company has also raised funds through a unique consumer stock option plan (CSOP), where it gives equity to customers in exchange for a minimum investment of INR 5,000. Roy said the CSOPs got oversubscribed by 250% after the Shark Tank appearance.

TagZ claims its USP is that its snacks are not fried or baked, but popped. Popping is essentially applying high temperature and pressure on potatoes to crisp them up instead of frying or baking. It’s akin to airfrying vegetables, but with the addition of pressure. The founders claim this allows the chips to have 50% less fat than competing options in the market. In terms of product differentiation, TagZ has tried to be distinct with its beer and vodka-flavoured chips which are positioned as bar snacks. As a new-age brand, TagZ is conscious of its impact on the environment and claims it has a net-zero plastic footprint, since it recycles as much plastic as it uses.

Like many D2C food brands these days, the company has opted for an omnichannel approach and sells on its own website, ecommerce marketplaces and hyperlocal channels such as Swiggy Instamart, Dunzo, BigBasket, Blinkit among others. It also has a presence on retail shelves at premium stores and modern trade outlets as well such as Nature’s Basket, Shell Select, Wellness Forever, and Ratnadeep. So far, the startup has opted for a lean approach with a singular manufacturing unit in Bengaluru and around 20 employees. The products are distributed through more than 70 distributors across India, with presence in Tier 2 cities such as Aizawl, Imphal, Pathankot, Ludhiana among others.

Roy says the vision is to make TagZ the largest premium snack brand across the categories it is present in i.e. chips, dips, and chocolates. Later this year, the company is looking to launch cookies to add to its desserts and sweets lineup. The target for the next couple of years is to hit the INR 100 Cr revenue mark with profitability. By 2025, the founders said they want to build an INR 1,000 Cr brand in snacking categories such as chips, dips, cookies, and chocolates.