Four years after its launch, Hola Nola—Louisiana’s only tortilla factory—continues to expand its line of products and enter new markets, according to a Business Report feature.
The company was launched by former Zapp’s Potato Chips executives Rod Olson and Kevin Holden in 2013 in response to the growing national demand for retail tortillas.
Buoyed by the growth of the Hispanic population in the U.S. and the embrace of Mexican foods among non-Hispanics, sales in this segment exceeded $12 billion in 2012, up from more than $2 billion in 1997, according to the Tortilla Industry Association. Louisiana, though, was one of only three states without a resident tortilla manufacturing facility.
“With Mexican food becoming more popular, especially at home, we felt there was a real opportunity here,” Holden says. “And we believed that since food trends generally take longer to really get entrenched in Louisiana, we still had room to grow.”
Holden and Olson have invested about $2.5 million in Hola Nola since launching the company, which has grown to 15 employees. Sales continue to increase each quarter across the company’s markets, which include most of Louisiana and parts of the Gulf South.
Fresh flour and corn tortillas are the company’s signature items. It produces 50,000 flour tortillas alone each day. In 2015, Hola Nola added a line of tortilla chips, and introduced jarred salsas and taco seasoning last year—items that are poised for national distribution thanks to their longer shelf life.
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