Crunchy Nut Lands in America

When I lived in London, I ate Crunchy Nut. Every morning. (And then I washed it down Berocca, often with two Nurofen Plus. Oh, those were the days - uh, and evenings, apparently.)

Then I met my future husband, and discovered he at Crunchy Nut, too. OMG, we have so much common! We started eating Crunchy Nut together, and my Nurofen Plus consumption, strangely, went down. (Such is the way of civilised life.)

Almost three years ago, we left Old Blighty for the New World, and there was no Crunchy Nut to be found in the wide aisles of the shopping megastores. WTF?

And then, two days ago, out of the blue, I saw it for sale at Tom's Food Pride in Glenwood, Minnesota. There was no brass band. There was no announcer heralding its arrival. There was no fanfare at all. The box didn't even say 'New!' (Nor did it say, I was sorry to see, 'Ludicriously Tasty,' something my visiting American cousin had found endlessly hilarious a few years before. She liked it so much she even brought the empty box home.)

But nonetheless, it was here. Happy days.

As it turns out, it came to the US in January 2011. Because I live in Canada, I totally missed it. The move was part of Kellogg's attempt to catch up with General Mills, who has been outselling it on the cereal front for the last few years. In the UK, Crunchy Nut is the number three most popular cereal (after Special K and Wheetabix). They've been marketing it to young males, with the advertising premise that "it's morning somewhere." That's kind of funny.

So, 18 months on, how has it done?

It's hard to tell. While there are lots of article around the time of launch, there's nothing about how it's done thus far.

But I will be causing a spike in sales when I drive to Buffalo next week to load up my car. Nielson, look out.