14 Feb, 2020 @ 14:35
1 min read

Spanish crisp firm’s orders surge 150% after its snacks appear in Korean Oscar-winning film Parasite

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SPAIN has its own Oscar winner.

Surprise package Parasite has brought an unexpected bonus to a Spanish crisp manufacturer.

Such has been the impact of the movie – which became the first foreign language film to scoop the Best Picture Award – that the Bonilla a la vista brand snacks have seen a surge in orders after a tin of its crisps were featured in a scene.

The potato snacks made a cameo appearance as part of the scene where the infiltrating Kim family eat snacks and drink whisky in the living room of their wealthy employers, the Parks.

Bonilla Korea
BIG FANS: Koreans have been going nuts for the Galician family firm’s crisps

It may have been a small part, but it has had a big effect on the fortunes of the Galician family firm.

The company has seen its online sales soar by 150% in just two weeks after the brand was first spotted in the film then taken up by a multitude of social network users.

Many of them are recognised as ‘influencers’ in Spain as well as South Korea, where the film was made and is set.

They would appear to have turned Bonilla’s tasty snacks into a full-blown craze.

Bonillaalavista 1
FAMOUS: Orders have surged for the Bonilla snack following Parasites

Bonilla, based in the town of Arteixo, already exports 40 tonnes of its crisps to the Asian country each year.

This makes it by far its biggest market outside Spain, although it does export to 20 nations.

The company has been making crisps and churros for almost a century and it remains a family firm with 100 employees.

Bonilla first realised something was going on last month when it noticed that pictures of its distinctive blue and white tins were appearing more and more on social media.

Lata Bonilla 1
QUALITY: Bonilla uses the finest ingredients in its crisps

A company spokeswoman said that it was just by chance that its crisps were used in the Bong Joon-ho-directed comedy thriller.

She added that the company only found out they were in Parasites when customers and friends told them.

The company is headed by Cesar Bonilla, who is 87 years old. He started in the business frying potatoes and making deliveries for the firm, which was started in 1932 by his father Salvador, who sold crisps and churros at fairs.

From those small beginnings, Bonillas has grown into a firm that produces about 540 tonnes of crisps each year.

Patatas Bonilla Pelicula Parasitos
SPOTTED: Bonilla’s crisps in the film Parasites

Sixty tonnes are exported, with two thirds going to South Korea.

A 500 gram tin costs around €13 in Spain and €23 in South Korea, with the company quickly deciding to take advantage of its Oscar boost by launching a smaller tin for the Asian market.

Cesar says that the secret to their success has always been an insistence on using top quality potatoes, good olive oil and sea salt, which gives the crisps a great taste and texture.

Dilip Kuner

Dilip Kuner is a NCTJ-trained journalist whose first job was on the Folkestone Herald as a trainee in 1988.
He worked up the ladder to be chief reporter and sub editor on the Hastings Observer and later news editor on the Bridlington Free Press.
At the time of the first Gulf War he started working for the Sunday Mirror, covering news stories as diverse as Mick Jagger’s wedding to Jerry Hall (a scoop gleaned at the bar at Heathrow Airport) to massive rent rises at the ‘feudal village’ of Princess Diana’s childhood home of Althorp Park.
In 1994 he decided to move to Spain with his girlfriend (now wife) and brought up three children here.
He initially worked in restaurants with his father, before rejoining the media world in 2013, working in the local press before becoming a copywriter for international firms including Accenture, as well as within a well-known local marketing agency.
He joined the Olive Press as a self-employed journalist during the pandemic lock-down, becoming news editor a few months later.
Since then he has overseen the news desk and production of all six print editions of the Olive Press and had stories published in UK national newspapers and appeared on Sky News.

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