Helen Skelton uncovers the inside secrets of some of Britain’s most popular brands with this evening episode turning its attention to breakfast.
From research into new recipes, through to the packaging on the shelf, this series explores the lengths these superbrands go to keep their rivals at bay and win over shoppers up and down the country. In this episode, Helen goes behind the scenes of Kellogg’s – the world’s most iconic cereal brand – to see how they make Corn Flakes, Frosties and Coco Pops.
With privileged access to their senior teams, factory and research laboratories, Helen uncovers the secrets of their global success.
She finds out about Tony the Tiger and Coco Monkey – the mascots that made the brand famous – and discovers what the company is doing regarding sugar content. Helen also visits a life-long cereal memorabilia collector and finds out why Coco Pops have been turning pink.
Kellogg’s now produces one million boxes of cereal a day, that’s a 25 per cent rise in production since 2016 when the Manchester factory was producing 750,000 boxes of cereal. Around half is used to create Cornflakes – Britain’s best-loved cereal, while the remaining half is divided between Crunchy Nut and Frosties.
Crunchy Nut is the brand’s second most-loved cereal with 25 million kilos sold every year compared with 10 million kilos of Frosties. Coco Pops remains their most popular cereal with children with 21 million kilos sold per year.
Paul Wheeler, director of communications at Kellogg’s:
“We recognise the need to evolve. In the 50s and 60s – sugar wasn’t as much of a concern for people, because it was the end of post-war austerity and you probably weren’t feeding your kids a lot of calories. Attitudes have changed now and about three years ago we made a decision to change, we got rid of high-sugar Ricicles and introduced 50 per cent reduction in sugar on Coco Pops.
“We do make some indulgent options if you want that – it all depends on what you want. We haven’t advertised Tony the Tiger for nearly two decades – while we all still love Tony, less people want to eat his food than they did three decades ago. It’s a fact.”
Inside the Superbrands, Channel 4, 8 pm
