Major Essex food producer Surya Foods, part of the Flying Trade Group, is making a major investment in the re-brand of its Laila Basmati rice product, with a new look and strapline - Love Laila Naturally.

The new look is being launched to the trade at the international Gulfood 2019 food festival, in Dubai this week - the world’s biggest food and beverage trade event with 5,000 exhibitors.

Managing director Harry Dulai is in Dubai to promote the new-look to an international audience.

It is part of a global multi-million pound re-brand to attract new consumers by the Harwich-based family business.

The move comes as Laila adds more than £3m year on year, to the rice category with sales growth of 34.6% during the last year.

With annual sales now edging toward £12m, Laila has achieved the biggest branded growth among the Top 3 UK dry rice brands for the second year running.

Laila owners Surya Foods has also seen a return of its Salaam rice brand to the UK Top 10.

Harry Dulai said: “Laila Rice was established in 1996 to bring high quality, ‘authentic’ basmati rice to the rice-eating Asian community of the UK who were in search of aromatic, delicious rice that tasted as good as they knew it should. As UK tastes have evolved mainstream consumers have similarly come to appreciate authentic flavours much more.

“As such, Laila continues to grow exponentially year on year and drive category growth. 2018 was another remarkable year for Laila, however, we remain ambitious with our growth targets and this rebrand is very much about taking Laila to a mainstream audience.”

The rebrand kicked off with the introduction of 100% recyclable packaging across its entire range of smaller bags last November.

The evolution of the brand’s signature heart into a butterfly motif, reflects the transformation of the brand as it doubles its efforts to attract a mainstream audience while celebrating its ‘natural, environmentally friendly’ credentials.

The motif will start appearing on packs from April, with a brand new Laila website in support of the major rebrand going live around the same time.

New fully recyclable packaging, featuring the brand’s signature hearts, new butterfly and decorative rice paddy ears, is one element of the brand’s new look and feel - feeding into a brand identity focused on ‘nature and authenticity’.

Laila’s latest campaign is making the most of existing consumer trends, including; the consumer’s growing desire to eliminate single use plastics; increasingly adventurous UK tastes; gluten free diet/healthy eating trends and the demand for premium quality at affordable prices.

Surya Foods is part of the Flying Trade Group, which includes Surya Hotels, and has an annual turnover of £100m and an employee base of more than 1,400 operating in 30 countries.