Alpen (food)

Alpen is the brand name of a muesli cereal that includes wheat, raisins, hazelnuts, almonds, and oats, manufactured by the Weetabix cereal company of Kettering, Northamptonshire, England. [cite web
url=http://www.weetabix.co.uk/brands/alpen-cereals/alpen-original/
title=:: The Weetabix Food Company
publisher=www.weetabix.co.uk
accessdate=2008-04-20
last=
first=]

History

In the mid-1970's, Colgate-Palmolive imported Alpen cereal into the U.S. as the first 'natural' cereal. It quickly became one of the largest selling cereals and Quaker responded with Quaker 100% natural. Colgate misjudged supply and demand and because they imported it from England and because they weren't accustomed to marketing products with code dates, the supply chain became a problem and shelf stock ran out of date and they had to purchase it back from retailers and destroy it. That, combined with Quakers marketing effort ended the short reign of Alpen as the #1 natural brand in the U.S.

Related cereals and products

Alpen has spawned several varieties of the same brand, including:
*Alpen Original
*Alpen Original (No Added Sugar)
*Alpen Original Blackberry & Apple
*Alpen Original Strawberry
*Alpen Caribbean Crunch
*Alpen Nutty Crunch

Several non-Alpen cereals have been incorporated into the Alpen brand. While most of these cereals have undergone changes in name only, here is a list of cereals which have been folded into the Alpen division of Weetabix, along with date of name change.

*Alpen Wheat Flakes (formerly Advantage cereal) — 2004
*Alpen Crunchy Bran (formerly Crunchy Bran cereal) — 2004

Like many cereal companies, Weetabix has introduced recently into the Alpen division the new product of cereal bars. These include varieties of several fruit flavours, such as:
*Apple & Blackberry with Yogurt
*Strawberry & Yogurt
*Fruit & Nut
*Fruit & Nut with Chocolate

ee also

*Breakfast cereal
*List of breakfast cereals
*Muesli
*Weetabix

References

Notes

External links

* [http://www.weetabix.co.uk/ Manufacturer's web page]