Cereal movement: General Mills regroups on Tiny Toast as Post Holdings revives Oreo O’s

This week, two cereal giants announced the return and the demise of two popular cereal brands in the US.

Missouri-based Post Holdings confirmed it is reviving the popular Oreo O's children's cereal, which initially debuted in 1998 and was on the shelf for a nearly decade before disappearing in 2007.

Meanwhile, General Mills has closed its newest cereal line, Tiny Toast, less than a year after its launch.

However, the Golden Valley-based company has not ditched the flavoured toast concept entirely and has incorporated it into the Toast Crunch family of brands.

Hello…​

According to Honey Bunches of Oats-maker Post, Oreo O's cereal – which will again feature cookie and crème bits – will be rolled out across the US in June for a SRP of $3.98 per box.

The Oreo brand is licensed by Mondelez.

Post also launched Cinnamon Pebbles at the beginning of the year, and a chocolate variation of Honey Bunches of Oats in 2016.

Ready-to-eat cereal accounts for 34% of the company’s $5bn in annual revenue.

…and goodbye​

The two Tiny Toast variants – rebranded Blueberry Toast Crunch and Strawberry Toast Crunch – began appearing on US shelves last month.

The company has announced it will also introduce another variety, Apple Cinnamon Toast Crunch, later in June.

The three new varieties join French Toast Crunch, which was relaunched in 2014 after a seven-year hiatus.

The company declined to reveal sales figures, but, according to IRI, it sold more than 4.5m boxes of Tiny Toast in the US last year. However, Americans bought nearly 111m boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch in the same period.

Other data from Kantar shows the Tiny toast brand had a marketing spend of about $133,900 last year, while General Mills spent $36m on Cinnamon Toast Crunch.