Post Banana Nut Crunch

 

CHALLENGE

Reverse engineer one of America’s best-selling ready-to-eat breakfast cereals: Post Banana Nut Crunch. This tasty granola cluster cereal was actually co-manufactured rather than produced in-house by Post on their own equipment. This SKU was extremely successful with North American sales of more than $70MM annually. 

However, Post did not have or own the cereal’s formulation. They also did not have a clear handle on the production or process parameters. In order to take production in-house or find alternate co-manufacturers, Post needed to duplicate the product perfectly. The client had exceedingly strict sensory targets for the clusters’ shape, aroma, and texture. They also wanted to maintain or ideally improve their cost of goods.

APPROACH

Post leveraged Guru Food Design’s reverse engineering skills, food science background, and food process design to reengineer this beloved cereal. Furthermore, the client utilized Guru Hari’s world-class manufacturing control planning talent to develop and produce the new Banana Nut Crunch cluster at scale.

SOLUTION

Guru Hari recreated the clusters per the client’s request with formula percentages and specific ingredient specifications to procure for the manufacturing of the product. We also created a robust validated supply chain to produce the SKU as well.

The project was delivered on time and within budget.  Consumer test panels revealed that the re-engineered sample scored 49% preference to 51% preference for the benchmark.  This allowed the parent company to 1) take the cluster production in-house and 2) negotiate a cost of goods reduction with the existing and future co-manufacturers which resulted in significant annual savings.

SERVICES PROVIDED:

  • Project planning which included supply chain, research and development, pilot scale-up, and actual commercialization of the target product.

  • Development of production methods and process validations including manufacturing control plans for tight adherence to quality parameters.

  • Quantitative consumer research via in-home use tests and large-scale national sensory panels.

Tomek Kalamaya