Laila® — scrubbing up rice!

SoreThumbStudio® recently helped Surya Foods take their flagship brand — Laila®, the UK’s no. 1 selling dry rice brand — and innovate it for the ready-to-eat category.

This is one of the biggest NPD innovation projects Surya Foods has undertaken in recent years, supporting their mission to capture a greater share of the UK rice market by offering consumers the authentic quality they expect from Laila® in a convenient, ready-to-eat format.

Adapting the brand for a new microwaveable pouch format, the SoreThumbStudio® team refreshed Laila®’s visual assets so they work harder in the convenience aisle and appeal to time-pressed consumers. This included building in stronger messaging, clearer flavour navigation, and premium foodie cues across a 10-SKU range.

Rather than throwing out the brand’s “baby”, the elephant, with the bathwater, the team explored how its role could evolve within the pack architecture — particularly as some flavours have a more global reach while the elephant carries a distinctly Indian design feel. From this exploration, a new Laila® brand texture was born.

Leading with the brand’s signature teal, the designers introduced bold, distinctive flavour colours for each SKU, giving the range strong shelf standout and clear navigability.

To maintain a premium feel, they created artisanal product imagery featuring a handcrafted bowl on coloured napery. To elevate the sense of quality further, subtle bronze metallic detailing was added to the newly introduced brand-identity keyline and established date.

Finally, SoreThumbStudio® amplified the convenience message with a softly disruptive “Microwave in 2 minutes” gloss-varnished seal device.

“Laila® scrubs up nicely, doesn’t she! All in all, the new packs — with their perfectly balanced positive and negative space — represent a major step forward for the brand: premium, modern, and ready for the convenience category without alienating the brand’s core consumer base. I can’t wait to see them on the shelves,” said Mike Nash, SoreThumbStudio®’s Creative Director.

Laila®’s convenience rice pouches launched in Tesco in late summer 2025 and are now also available from Amazon UK, Ocado, Morrisons, and B&M.

Find out more at www.sorethumb.studio or www.linkedin.com/company/sorethumbstudio

Source: SoreThumbStudio®

  Brand Refresh, Design, Food, Laila, Marketing, Packaging, SoreThumbStudio, Surya Foods