I would guess that these were one of the first attempts at the nutrition bar. This box is from about 1976-7 and has some really groovy graphics on the side panels and check out the bacon as part of the complete breakfast on the front. The three flavors of the boxes I have are Peanut Butter & Granola, Peanut Butter Crunch and Chocolate Crunch.
328 comments:
1 – 200 of 328 Newer› Newest»Carnation came out with Breakfast Bars around between Apr-July 1975, And were pretty good for something quick or just a snack.
Anyone know if someone still sells these or something similar?
Man, I used to love these bars. They were a staple of mine as a kid as much as hot dogs and mac'n'cheese. I haven't seen them on the market in over 2 decades and I'm thinking about trying to make them from scratch.
Ah, this box brings back so many memories... I miss these bars so much. My sister and a friend fom work commiserate with me on this very subject every now and then. Here's a link with what looks to be a similar recipe: http://www.budget101.com/recipes/id487.htm
I have longed for these over the years. That box totally takes me back!!! I've never found anything that has the same texture and taste. What a bummer. Same way I feel about the Pillsbury Food Sticks. Those were so good. I know there is a guy making a similar product, but it's not exactly the same and it's not round, the the Food Sticks were. Anyway...sure do miss these things!
Look there are no better breakfast bars than carnation, THE BEST. The others are okay but what ever happened to the original "Carnation" bars ???? How can we get them back in production ???
I LOVED these bars. As everyone else here, I would have them for a snack at school in the 70's. I have searched Everywhere, and the Closest thing to them are the Power bars. Hmmmmm...could it be them but from another maker? Power bar Pria. Try em.
Click on a flavour for more information
POWERBAR® PRIA™
FLAVOURS
Chocolate Peanut Butter Crisp
French Vanilla Crisp
Chocolate Crisp
I loved these things. Power Bar is owned by Nestle who also owns Carnation. It could be that they repackaged them into the Pria bars. They do look awfully similar. I may have to try them out.
Carnation Breakfast Bars are ABSOLUTELY the best bars on the planet!!! I have never tasted anything similar, since they have been taken off the market years ago :~(. I surely do wish Carnation would put them back on the market! I remember eating these as a little girl, now all grown-up, I still miss them, always have missed them and always will. Not only did I love them but my family did as well. We would also eat these bars as treats not just for breakfast! And no you could'nt eat just one, atleast for me that is. Tempting little bars, full of flavor!
I used to hall a*s to get home from school to have one of these bars before my sister got home! I loved them! I could eat a whole box! I have missed them for 20 years! Why oh why did they get rid of them?!?!
They were the best breakfast bars ever. I wish they would bring them back. I used to eat them for snacks. So delicious!
I loved these bars so much. I swear I could eat a box at once.
How did you find those pictures of the box? How cool!
I never would have made it through law school without these bars! I would love to know where I can buy them. Has anyone found them recently??
OH! Jeez. I'm so glad to discover there are fellow mourners out there who feel the loss deep in their souls of the Carnation Breakfast Bar. My Aunt Dixie always had them at her house and I couldn't wait to go to sleep so I could wake up the next morning and have one.
OH. The pain. The longing....
We should start up an online petition to Carnation to put these back in production. I discovered about 3 years ago that I was not the only one that missed these. We need to put something into action to let Carnation know that these bars are missed.
I've been missing these for YEARS! The tezture is what I loved the most...crunchy and dry, not mushy like the breakfast bars now.
I wish they'd bring them back!
Man I agree with all of you, my mom used to get these when I was a kid, I sure did like them alot I think it is just a southern thing, can't find them any where, sure would bring back some godd memories...... jess
I just started a petition to get them back! Pleas go to http://www.petitiononline.com/cb01/petition.html
and sign.
We need to get Carnation Breakfast Bars back!
Cam
Me and my family loved these! They were the best ever! Does anyone know if the online petition is still current / being managed? If yes, I plan to send the link to everyone I know and try to contact Nestle too. How great would it be if we got them back on the market?!?!
Cmon people...we can do better than 38 signatures! Get the word out if you want this to happen! Talk to business schools, make it a project! Get on the 70s-80s website managers and have them put the petition link up! Also, we have to make SURE that what they reintroduce aren't the sad, chewy ones that they came out with toward the end of the product run.
Carnation Breakfast Bars were my favorite snack and they would still top anything else I have today if they were still available. I remember looking for them years ago and found, to my horror, they had been changed to some gooey oat rubber thing. Just what the heck is it with this country and their fascination with chewey crap?!?!? Crunchy is where it's at. No wonder everybody's dentist bills are so high.
And I thought I was the only one who missed Breakfast Bars. I loved the chocolate chips! I remember when they changed the recipe, and they weren't crunchy any more. They didn't taste the same once they went to chewy. I wrote a letter to the company and told them how disappointed I was in the new product. I guess my opinion didn't count!
God I loved these. I still remember the texture. Please, God, bring them back.
OMG.....i must have these again. i just left a message for Nestle begging them to make the again....help me.....send them an email so we can get them back into production...thanks
I have written to Nestle asking about these bars.. I have searched high and low and have not found them. When i was young I would eat them as a tasty snack after school. I know it sounds crazy, but I really them. NESTLE--- BRING THEM BACK!! Please. =)
Wow these were good! I used to eat one of these (any flavor) and washed it down with chocolate or vanilla Nutrament (anyone remember that stuff!) right after sports practice when I was a kid. Best meal on earth!
My family thought I was crazy, until discovering this blog. I've looked for the bars in every breakfast ailse I stroll for the last 5 years, only to be dissapointed every time. Bring 'em back! (160 on the petition).
OMG!!! I love these bars. Please bring them back. I use to love the choc. chip,choc crunch. Where can I buy them??? Carnation please you are sitting on a gold mine.
My god..YES!. I signed the petition, but don't expect much. Even if someone could get their original recipe, and..., well lets just keep hoping.
Signed! I too look everywhere for these, each time I shop. I absolutely LOVED them, and will try the recipe, but I know it wont be the same :(
I have been thinking about the old carnation breakfast bars. They were the best. So sad that they discontinued. All others do not compare. I wish they would bring it back. They made a real mistake by discontinuing.
Count me in as one who misses Carnation Breakfast Bars. Totally agree that the original crunchy ones are the only "true" CBB. I'm going to search now for the Pria Powerbars and see if there's any similarity. Off to sign the petition now.
Like so many others, I've searched high & low for those tasty little Carnation Breakfast Bars and still do...hoping & longing to see that box on the grocery store shelf! I remember them from my childhood & LOVED, LOVED, LOVED them (as did my Mom).
On my way to sign the petition!!
These bars were my favorite thing to eat as a snack at my Grandmas house in spokane. It would bring back so many memories if they were to bring them back!
I have the way it felt tearing open the package, the smell,taste,and dry crumbly texture of the Carnation Breakfast Bar burned deep in my memory. One would have to go a week without food before a Powerbar would resemble the one and only! Maybe it was a special chemical that made us all long for just one more bite today? I also feel the same way about the "Space Stick". GD those were good too! Chocolate licorice comes close to the Space Stick but I have found nothing close to Breakfast Bar we all loved!
It is so funny how many loved breakfast bars AND space sticks! How I miss them both. I even tell my kids about how good they were because every now and then I'll try an energy bar that kind of reminds me of the space sticks. Try Genisoy chocolate bars and see if they don't bring back memories. Has Carnation responded to the petition?
I just signed the petition and was disappointed to see only 248 signatures! I expected to see thousands! Who didn't love breakfast bars? I would always eat them at my aunt Pat's house. She made me a set of puzzles and one of the puzzles had an apple, a pear, a banana, a potato, a carrot, AND A BREAKFAST BAR! I, like many others, have searched and searched the aisles, and will continue to search, in hopes that one day, my dream will come true :)
Oh delicious breakfast bars, how I have missed you. I can still remember your crunchy peanutbuttery taste, perfectly complemented by a big glass of milk.
I am glad to know there are others like me who are a little bit sad every time they bite into a granola bar. Pria bars are inferior. There is only one breakfast bar. Bring them back. Please!
Since you have the actual box, any chance you can list ingredients? I would love to have. I can't believe Carnation hasn't brought these back. They are missing out big time on the nutrition bar market. Idiots!
I worked in Saudi for two years going back and forth. My suitcase would alway be half full of these bars. I still miss them. I am retired and do not travel much. We are taking a trip in Dec. to the Carribean. Sure wish we could find some bars to take along.
Can we get a pertition to picket the plant. By the way where is the headquarters located for CARNATION?
Tex
Would love so much to see the return of the breakfast bars. Nothing compares. FYI the petition is only up to 311 (that's me). Please everyone, help get the word out.
I used to eat these all the time growing up - the world's best snacks. I, too, wrote to Nestle when they changed the formula, but of course to no avail. I signed the petition, but I doubt we'll see the return of the breakfast bar
We MUST get a Wikipedia entry on the Carnation breakfast bars! And the first step is to get that original image in the first post. I never thought I'd see a picture of a box again. Petition web site can also go into Wikipedia.
Please bring back the carnation bars. My daughter who is pregnant is wanting them badly. Especially, the chocolate chip ones. This is a matter of life and death.
YES!!! I found my first true love again. I miss you Carnation..it's been over 15 years now and I will still forgive you if you come back to me. Please, if I have to wait 10 more years, I want you. I want you so bad.
PS - not sure how valid this recipe is, but I found this and plan to try it out.
http://www.budget101.com/recipes/id487.htm
I loved them more than candy bars. It took a long time to eat them, and they were so satisfying. I just loved them!!! I was so disappointed when they started making them different, like granola bars.
Aha - so I'm not the only person googling 'carnation breakfast bar' in 2007. I would pick up 4-5 boxes at a time and eat them all. That's right - all; in maybe about twenty minutes.
And now in 2008.. yet another googler missing the crunchy goodness of the carnation breakfast bar.
I dislike all those chewy bars. At least I am not alone, although I am still bar-less :(
Wow you are right.. i remember these. I have been searching the internet for this today. Wow what memories... i loved these when i was a kid... thanks for the memories
My husband and I just signed the petition. Although he personally doesn't remember them, he's spent the last 10 years of our marriage listening to me go on and on about how much I loved them--and miss them. He'd give anything to see me happy, and the ONLY way THAT'S going to happen is if Carnation comes to the rescue and brings back their original Breakfast Bars. To this very day, I ALWAYS crave them, and NOTHING comes close to satisfying THAT craving. I never could keep those bars around long enough to enjoy them for more than a day. If I ate ONE, I'd eat the whole box. My mom always got on to me about it because no one else in the family ever got any. Then when I was an adult, I'd sometimes eat the whole box before I even got home from the grocery! I was married to someone else at the time, and HE never got any either. It never dawned on me back then that I may some day be forced to endure life without them. (It's made me paranoid too. For instance, I've always loved Tiger Milk bars, and even though they're still around, I live in constant fear that they're going to disappear too. It's a horrible way to live--and Carnation is to blame!) I once wrote the company (Carnation) and told them I absolutely canNOT live without Carnation Breakfast Bars--so will they PLEASE bring them back, I begged. They wrote me back, and the answer was a big fat depressing NO--something about needing to keep up with the competition. WHAT competition?! There is NO competition! Carnation Breakfast Bars are THE BEST--The One and Only REAL breakfast bars!
Wow! It's great to see there are so many like-minded people out there! I feel like I've found my long lost family! I too LOVED Carnation Breakfast Bars and have been waiting forever for them to come back. I really wish Carnation would clue in and start making thm again. I just signed the petition, it's in the 500s now.
I'm glad I'm not the only one. Man, I grew up on these things. Anytime my sister and i went to stay at my grandparents house, my grandmother would go out and buy 4 or 5 boxes of them before we would come. It's hard to compare since I haven't tasted them for a couple of decades, but Snickers crunchers, if still available kind of remind me of the taste of the chocolate chip breakfast bar. They're the snickers with the rice crispies in them.
Wow... here it is 2008 and people are STILL posting to this list. I wish Nestle would see this. I too have wished they would put the original recipe bars back on the market. Nothing else out there matched it. It was kind of crunchy/crumbly texture, oddly "chemical" tasting but not in a bad way. It was just perfect. Paradise lost lol.
This is nuts. I thought I was the only one that spent way too much time looking through the power bar and granola bar isles. If Nestle won't produce the bars, then maybe someone else can buy the recipe from them and make them for us. How much do you think they want for the recipe and the rights to produce it? What if they took them off the market because there was something wrong with them. Maybe they had some addictive drug in them. How else can you explain so many of us pining for them so much?
I can't believe this, I thought I was the only one crazy enough to be looking for the carnation breakfast bars. I used to eat them all the time while in college in the mid early 80's. I too keep looking in the breakfast bar isle every time I go grocery shopping just hoping I will stumble onto them. What was Carnation thinking by taking these off the market?
Yes, one more Carnation bar lover out there. I signed the petition.
MUST GET THEM BACK! Man, I miss these everyday...
I also liked them, but only the original ones, not the chewy ones they sold just before taking them off the market. I would buy a case of the original ones if they were available.
BT
Good to know there is a Carnation Breakfast Bar brotherhood out there. I loved those things, good times, man good times. I used to love seeing them in my lunch box as a kid and then rushing home to enjoy another one! BRING THEM BACK!!! If there is a God, he/she would bring those tasty treats back to us!!!!!!
There's never been a bar as good as this. I enjoyed them right up to their unannounced change, then dismissal in 1992.
I have a theory that the Breakfast Bars contained some chemical that was found to be unfit for humans, and that Carnation was found criminally negligent unless they removed the bars from the market. Then, they lobbied/paid someone off at the FDA to cover it up as long as they introduced a replacement you couldn't chew, then took them away alltogether.
Just a theory. We miss you Breakfast Bars!!
I recently tried a Zone Perfect bar, and they seem to have the same size, texture, and taste. I haven't had a Carnation bar since 1985, so I might be wrong on this...
OMG WTB Carnation Breakfast Bars!
I still look in stores for these... even just today. Sadly i guess i will have to stop looking :(
Wow, I thought I was one of few people who absolutely LOVED Carnation breakfast bars. They were truly a comfort food for me in the 80's I found a bar that kind of came close to the taste--Ensure Bars around 1997 or 1998. Then to my EXTREME disappointment, those too were discontinued!!!! What in the world is going on??
I had no idea that others remembered, much less still craved these things! I too have scanned grocery store aisles over the years and been disappointed not to find them. I never thought to Google them until tonight when I saw a commercial for Carnation Breakfast Drink and remembered the awesome bars again. I signed the petition and it's up to 655. I agree with everyone that the crunchy ones are where it's at -- no chewy "health food" crap. Gimme the transfat, I can handle it.
As so many of you have said, Breakfast bars were a staple of mine as a kid. I'd eat 2 everyday for breakfast, chocolate peanutbutter. I think about them everytime I pass the carnation items in the cereal isle. I wish they'd bring them back!!
I can't believe I'm not alone in missing those wonderful crunchy bars! I haven't had them since high school in the late '80s! I signed the petition, but does that really work? I loved them so much, that if I won millions in the lottery, I would pay Carnation to set up production on them again! Those, and Pine Brothers throat drops. Remember those wonderful, chewy, gooey things? I loved those!
I think that they started to phase these out when the 'chewy' granola bars came out (I think those were a quaker foods product called KUDOS.)
I loved the Carnation Breakfast Bar. I liked the crunch of them. If I remember correctly, the chocolate chip was my favorite.
I have looked for these in the supermarket often -- but they are "gone".
I too miss these bars but I recently purchased Kellogg's Sweet & Salty Chocalatey Peanut bars and at first bite it brought me back to the mid to late 70's when I would enjoy one of those Carnation Breakfas Bars. These are not exact but they are close...give 'em a try.
Wow! I wonder if we all write to Carnation will they consider bringing these back?
Prob. not.
wow, just like so many other people here, i had no idea that others remembered the original breakfast bars! they were absolutely the best. i never liked the chewy kind. so happy to read all the posts!
I liked the original bars too, not the chewy ones. My husband and I just signed the petition. I hope we're not too late and that Nestle will listen. We both loved them! I hope they'll bring them back!
Has anyone heard if there is any possibility of these bars coming back?
I have tried and tried for over 10 years to get Nestle to listen.
It will only take a massive writing campaign to the right people at Nestle to make it happen, people:
Paul Bulcke
Nestle, Zone America
Richard Laube, Executive VP
Nestle Nutrition
Lars Olofsson
Marketing/Sales
Spend the extra couple of dollars and send letters, certified mail.
I was and am a big fan of carnation breakfast bars, with your bars I was able to drop 45lbs in 1978, of course I was exercising and eating other nutricious foods, but it was the bar that kept me going I was looking again for the bars my favorite, chocolate chip and peanut butter chocolate, but have not seen any on the shelves, you see I would like to drop even more weight now that I have gained due to surgeries and medicines that have caused weight gain, your bars were balanced meal and kept me from eating unhealthy foods such a candy bars and pizza etc. please restock your shelves and help all of us who lived on them while they were on the market and and put them back out there for us to purchase.
thank you
Dan
I absolutely loved these breakfast bars more than any other treat as a child! I have thought about them over the years and have looked for them in the stores but have been unable to find them for years. I figured I had no choice but to accept that they were no longer being made. Then I decided to look online to see if I could find any info and lo and behold there is a whole group of people that feel the same way I do. I have tried other bars and nothing even comes close to the taste and texture of Carnation Breakfast Bars! If Nestle started making them again, I would buy them everytime I went grocery shopping and I would insist all my friends and family try them! I would love for my children to be able to have the pleasure of tasting these bars just as I did as a child. I can't figure out why they ever stopped making them. Apparently they were selling good or there wouldn't be all of these die hard fans years later! I remember getting up for school and I couldn't wait to have one of these breakfast bars. I sure hope Nestle will consider bringing these bars back on the market!
I ate a chocolate chip breakfast bar and an apple for lunch every day in High School. Sure wish I could get them again.
My mom asks me all the time if I can buy her some at the store. "Are they back in stock yet??"
I loved 'em and will have to try the Powerbar Pria's, but I'm not holding out too much faith.
Neither the Zone nor the Pria bar are anything like them, unfortunately. Neither are bad, though.
There was one protein bar that tasted a lot like space food sticks, but they tweaked it last year. You CAN buy space food sticks, though, and they're pretty much the same as they were. I did buy a case. :)
I used to eat a whole box of breakfast bars, up to and in college. Had to keep myself from buying too many. I liked the chocolate chip ones. I would take a bite, see what chocolate chips were exposed in the middle, and eat those before I took the next bite. Weird, I guess, but fun.
I signed a petition a while back to bring back Carnation breakfast bars. I'm in my mid 30's now and I still miss those bars,especially the chocolate chip ones. We used to get them in the '80's and they were and still are my absolute favorite breakfast bar ever. There hasn't been anything like them since. I really wish they would bring them back exactly as they were!
oh my gosh!!! I've been searching all over for these. I have asked some friends if they heard of them or knew if they were still around anywhere, etc, but nobody knows what I'm talking about! I'm in my 30's and my mom used to buy these bars when I was young, i LOVED them, and have been craving them for years! I have tried just about every breakfast/ health bar out there and can't find anything even similar tasting! where is the petition??? haha. Man I would really really love to see those back on the market!
Oh I found the petition link in a comment above. I hope if they bring them back, they're the original crunchy ones I remember. I just bit into another hopeful the kellog special K bar only to be let down once again. the picture looked crunchy, but of course this was just another chewy let down and tasted noting like my old carnation bars. :( :(
I loved the bars. I used to beg my mother to buy them for me for breakfast. I cosntantly look at the aisle for the boxes, but am disappointed. I have tried many other brands, but none have the same taste.
I wish Nestle/Carnation wuold bring them back. I would but them everytime I am grocery shopping.
I signed the petition and I belioeve it is in the 890 range.
Hey, this is nuts! So many others out there with the same craving! I got hooked back in the early 80's in Germany - my mother worked for Carnation , so we were always stocked on whatever. The bars were my thing...I'd eat the whole box if nobody was watching!
Sitting here thinking about them, I can just about taste them - but not quite. Seriously, Nestle, I alone would make it "financially sound" for you to bring the Breakfast Bar back! Purty please, even?
I miss these terribly. My last recollection of consuming one (nah, probably more like 3) of these bars was in 1994, when I was in labor and wanted to eat something on my way to the hospital. They were the perfect combination of salty and sweet. I would love to see these back again!
My mouth is watering just reading these posts...as they do anytime I think about these bars. I still, to this day, expectantly scan the grocery store shelves looking for my old friend...the one, the only ORIGINAL Carnation Breakfast Bar...only to be sadly disappointed that they're still MIA.
To the powers that be...HEAR US...we want the ORIGINAL CARNATION BREAKFAST BAR BACK ON GROCERY STORE SHELVES...PLEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAASE!!!
Petition is up to 932! Come on peeps...sign it, get others to sign it and participate in the letter writing campaign to get these babies back in production!!!
Try this link (or copy & paste) to send comments that we want the bars back...
http://www.carnationinstantbreakfast.com/Info/Contactus.aspx
I would literally do ANYTHING for one of these about now....
awwww...i was afraid these had been discontinued and now it's been confirmed by eveyone here! =(...i find myself loking for them at the market from time to time...guess i can stop now. i LOVED these as a kid and wish they'd bring them back.
I want one of these so bad right now! These were a staple for me as a kid. I've never had anything like them, and I love them! Count me in for petitioning, great idea! I'm writing those Carnation people today! Let's get these bars back!
In addition to writing letters you can also call Carnation toll free at 1-800-289-7313, Monday-Friday 8am to 8pm EST. They'll try to send you coupons for the stuff you don't want. Just be sure to tell them what you do want.
This is so great. I'm not the only one! And I just went to the Nestle website asking why they are gone and to please bring them back.
To the one who thought it was a "southern thing"..nope, I'm from Southeast Alaska and if I could get away with eating half a box as a kid I would. I miss those bad and look for them in the gross cereal and nutrition bar areas of the store...nope. I loved the crunch and how they weren't too sweet and the dryness.
Maybe they had addictive substances in them to make us all crave them even years later! The sweet,crunchy, salty, dry, chocolate chippy, peanut buttery, stick in your teeth-ness of them....oh. I'm 37 and I too have looked for them in grocery stores, hoping to see them on the shelves. Pushing back behind the instant breakfast drinks to try and get to a "left over" box of them (yeah, right, now it's confirmed that's not going to happen). *sigh*
I LOVE THOSE BARS>>> glad to know I wasn't the only one.... I wish they would bring them back. I glance at the top shelf at carnation HOPING to see a box!!!
PLEASE NESTLE>>>> BRING UM BACK!!!
me, from georgia!
I cannot belive that these wonderfully delicious bars are no longer at the store. I dont know how Carnation breakfast bars could be discontinued. I remember when I was a child, waking up and eatting a bar on my walk to school. This is ridiculous. PUT THEM BACK ON THE MARKEt
Latest response from Nestle, after being provided link to this blog:
"May 22, 2008
Thank you for your inquiry regarding the availability of NESTLÉ® CARNATION® INSTANT BREAKFAST® Bars. We really appreciate your feedback. At Nestlé, we are dedicated to you and your family throughout every phase of your lives. Your comments are valuable to us, as it helps us to improve our products and services.
The CARNATION INSTANT BREAKFAST BARS have been discontinued for a few years now. Sale volume was not great enough to justify space on the retailers' shelves. We receive many requests asking that we bring the bars back and will take all of them into consideration.
If you are looking for a nutritious snack bar, we recommend you try the PRIA® BAR by POWERBAR®. It has a delicious chocolate or vanilla coating and is packed with 110 calories and essential vitamins and minerals including calcium. We would be happy to provide you with coupons for the PRIA bar as well as coupons for CARNATION® INSTANT BREAKFAST® complete nutritional drinks which are available in both Ready-To-Drink and Powders. Please reply with your full name and address if you would like us to send this mailing to you.
We value you as a customer and wish you the 'very best!'"
provided by www.cervete.com
I just left a comment on Carnation's web site regarding our beloved Breakfast Bar, pleading for its reintroduction. The petition was up to 1149.
It's interesting that Carnation says that the sales volume wasn't high enough to justify continued production, but they totally ignore the fact that the main market for this product today were *children* back then, and thus weren't the ones making the purchasing decisions. Well, those children are grown up now, and have bank accounts and credit cards. I don't think Carnation has any real idea how well the original bars would sell *now*, since the numbers they have are based on 20-30 year old sales data involving a totally different demographic, not to mention that the chewy, sub-standard product they cancelled IS NOT THE SAME as the product that so many people fell in love with.
Please Carnation, give it another shot.
I thought perhaps I was the only one who had given a second thought to the Carnation breakfast bar. My mom used to buy them in the 80's when I was in grade school. She would complain that I went through them too fast, but they were too wonderful for words. I have not found that texture and taste in any other bar---there seems to be no true substitute! Talk about loved and lost...I even have fond memories of the packaging! I would hope that if Nestle brought this back, they would use the "inspired" recipe; it sounds like maybe they played around with it a little toward the end. I see that Carnation is referencing the PRIA bar by Powerbar if we are looking for "a nutritious snack bar," but I'm not! I don't care how many calories they had, "the" breakfast bar was where it was at. Surely the reintroduction of the breakfast bar would be a step toward world peace and the renewal of the planet. :-) Thanks for listening!
give out the old recipe if u dont bring them back thank u
I've emailed Carnation a couple times - asking them to put them back out -They say sales were not worth it -
Maybe if we all write? (i think it may actually be ConAgra now)......
Anyone know where/how to get an AUTHENTIC recipe for it?????
I've tried a couple I've googled around - but there's never an exact duplicate. If you could send me one, please do to: thecatspajamas@msn.com
thanks!
I signed the petition and will be forwarding this to my friend vikki whose mom first introduced these bars to me. (thank you Gail) I too wrote Nestle on this issue to no avail. I craved them terribly when pregnant and they had no mercy. I have a hard time believing the woman who said she lost 45 lbs on these bars. I have warned my husband of a 10 lb weight gain if they bring the bars back (he's ok with it) Periodically he has to hear about this. Please bring them back. Please.
I had no idea there were so many others out there, like me, who loved these bars and even craved them from time to time. This is very exciting to hear. I'm all for signing a petition - just point me in the right direction. Maybe we can get Carnation to bring back those delicious treats.
If Nestle is saying there isn't enough room on retailers' shelves to justify production, why not offer them through Amazon.com? That way they could be produced at the level of demand and who of us wouldn't gladly buy $25 worth at a time to get free shipping? Also, would anyone be interested in creating a Facebook page to create a virtual support community? Maybe it would get Nestle's attention.
Hell yes, bring 'em back! Both I and my children love these bars. The Amazon.com idea is excellent, I'd pony-up $50 a week I'm sure. Don't forget to sign the petition people!
http://www.petitiononline.com/cb01/petition.html
Oh! my breakfast bars! I was So Addiccted to them! please bring the back, please
No other bar even comes close - BRING THEM BACK!!!!! (Please)
Same here! There is no other discontinued food that I still crave like the Carnation Breakfast Bar (original, not those horrid chewy versions). I sometimes try other bars that look similar, but to no avail. And I have at least one friend who says the same thing. Amazing how much of a following this former food has. :)
My sister and I used to eat these wen we were little. We miss them and want them back.
I also am in my 30's and have been looking at several different grocery stores for the past two years or so for theses GREAT bars! I signed the petition and will call Carnation as well. Good luck to us all.
I scan the shelves for Carnation Breakfast Bars EVERY TIME I'm at the store...oooooooo, to taste the chocolate, nutty goodness of those bars once again would be heavenly.
Here are some recaps of earlier posts of where to write, email, call and petition to get these back in production...perhaps direct them to this blog and/or the petition in each correspondence.
#1…Send letters via snail mail to the following people (this was from a poster awhile back so I don’t know if the info is still valid)…
Paul Bulcke
Nestle, Zone America
Richard Laube, Executive VP
Nestle Nutrition
Lars Olofsson
Marketing/Sales
#2…Try this link (or copy & paste) to send comments that we want the bars back...
http://www.carnationinstantbreakfast.com/Info/Contactus.aspx
#3…In addition to writing letters, call Carnation toll free at 1-800-289-7313, Monday-Friday 8am to 8pm EST. They'll try to send you coupons for the stuff you don't want. Just be sure to tell them that we want CARNATION BREAKFAST BARS back!!
#4…Sign the petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/cb01/petition.html
#5…Email the links to anyone you know…I know there’s tons of people out there that LOVED these bars but didn’t realize there was an effort to bring them back.
Hope this helps!
I don't post to blogs. This is however a worthy cause. I miss this product as much as everyone else here, I signed the petition (I don't sign petitions either). I just want these bars back! With "retro" being the current rage, it is foolish not to offer these to online customers at least. I would buy cases of them if they were available.
I absolutely loved these bars when I was growing up too! PLEASE bring them back - they were the best!! I do remember them changing slightly before they pulled them off the market - keep the original recipe please!
Love 'em, miss 'em, want 'em!!!
Wow, I'm not the only one who absolutely loved these bars. I can't remember when Carnation discontinued the version everyone so loves but they did put out a "newer, more nutritious" version that was so awful it didn't last and then the Breakfast Bar fell off the face of the earth. I wonder if anyone remembers "Slender" bars - they were pretty tasty too.
I ate a Carnation Breakfast Bar and a glass of milk every morning for breakfast. Since they discontinued them, breakfast has never been the same. I loved them and I wrote the company in hopes they would bring back the original. I didn't care for the time they changed to chewy. I still search the grocery isle wishing I'd look up and they'd be back.
#1499 on the petition. OMGosh, I cannot believe there are all these people out there that feel as I do!
I've been longing for these for years and always search in different stores for them. My fav is Peanutbutter Crunch. I've tried tasting other bars and there is nothing out there simular. What were they thinking?????? Bring them back.
I did a google search hoping that the bars were one of those products you could only find in certain markets...too bad they have been discontinued! I loved them so! I'm surprised the bars were taken off the market when they were better than any bar being sold today (IMHO) and also, they sell enough of their instant breakfast drink to keep it in production? That stuff is horrible!
OMG, I am laughing so hard reading this cause I thought I was the only one missing them (me and my sister that is). I am a 35 year old mom of 3 and feel like a kid thinking about these. I told my 7 year old daughter about them and she now wants one. I really loved them sooo much. My mom would only buy them as a treat and my sister and I would go nuts. But we were only allowed one at a time. AHH - the good ole days. I would love to have just one more. I can remember it like yesterday. Well, i sent this site to my sister and you now have 2 more fans. I can't wait to show my husband cause he thought I was nuts talking about these bars. Now I can confirm they were the bomb!!! Thanks for the memories!!!
Ayup. Those things were addictive. We were allowed one a day, but it was SO HARD not to eat the whole box.
It is something when you crave something 20+ years since you last ate it.
I, too, really enjoyed them. Just recently I got another brand-no dice! Not the same at all. I will go to a store and look at the section where all the other breakfast stuff is and imagine seeing that 1970's box of Carnation Breakfast bars. I can only hope.......for now!
Ha ha ha- too funny (but sad too). Every so oftne these absolutley delicious bars pop back into my consciousnes and I start craving them. Imagine my disappointment when my google search led me to the sad fact that I just can't get them anymore. Signed the petition too- I hope it works!
So how will the petition be delivered to Nestle?
I know this is no substitute for the real thing BUT.....CLIF makes a bar called Builder's in peanut butter, it was quite good (the other flavors kinda suck). It reminded me of our beloved breakfast bar and got me craving them again; it's a vicious cycle.
I am now convinced there was some sort of addictive addititve to these things. I use to get grounded because I would eat the whole damn box. Now that I'm 34, I would buy them buy the bushel and happily eat them by the box without fear of punishment! WOOO HOO! Oh wait. They don't exist anymore. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
I used to buy 10 boxes of the original bars a month. Now I don't buy any. My whole family misses the texture and full flavor. Especially the chocolate chip original breakfast bars. Bring 'em back, please! I still check when I shop to see if anyone was smart enough re-introduce the bar. The math speaks for itself. Lots. or None.
I'm 39 and have been missing the original Carnation Breakfast Bars for 18 of those years! It's the one thing I'd want to take with me on a deserted island and I pray that they bring them back! The newer version didn't sell very well and I don't blame them from discontinuing them, but GUYS....THE ORIGINAL WAS THE GOOD STUFF...CHECK YOUR DATA A LITTLE FURTHER BACK!!!! I too would buy at least 10 boxes a month for me and my kids! They say "If you build it they will come..." but guys, we're already here! Get to making those bars already!
My letter to to Nestle today. Hope it helps!
"Please, bring back the original Carnation Breakfast Bars. I understand that the newer version did not sell well, but the original was the best and none of us liked the chewy new version. There are over 1100 signatures on a petition literally begging you to bring them back. It's been at least 15 years since I've had one and I still crave them, and apparently other people are too. So, why not give it a trial run? If not, why not give the recipe to those who are searching for the bars? I've tried just about every bar on the market, including Pria and nothing even comes close to the original crunchy, delicious Carnation Instant Breakfast Bar! For the sake of a new generation, who is gorging itself on Pop-tarts, please give us back our healthier alternative! Thank you!"
The Original Carnation Breakfast Bars were the best bar ever! Their chewy replacement was a sad attempt at real food. The original was the was to go and I have NO DOUBT that is would sell and sell well were it brought back to those who loved it then and now.
Please bring me my favorite food!
The closest thing I have found to the taste (although it has been years since I had one) are the ZONE chocolate Almond Biscotti protein bars. I still hope someday that Carnation brings the real thing back!
I used to love the Chocolate Chip breakfast bars. It brings back memories of family vacations, not stopping to eat, and being told just to eat one... The heavy wrapper that was paper on the outside and shiny plastic on the inside... Running outside to play after downing one and sneaking another out the door... This was high-carb fuel for kids whose mothers didn't have enough time or energy of their own to cook. We loved it, but it was good for the mom's too, lets be honest. Then Carnation hit the rocks and Quaker introduced their gooey substitute. The horror. I am still in mourning to this day. Bring these back, dammit! I'm tired of chewy crap.
I cannot believe I have found a forum where people are grieving about the same thing: Those oh-so-good ORIGINAL Carnation Breakfast Bars! And here I thought I was the only one who had searched high and low for them, even after they went chewy (gross!). I signed the petition. Hopefully someone at Nestle brings these back for all of us! So much nostalgia with those!
OMG. I did not realize they were not sold any longer, I just figured they were always sold out or I was looking in the wrong places.........there is nothing on the market even close to that bar. The cruchiness melted in my mouth with every last morsel. I TOTALLY miss this product. My morning coffee has not been the same because I have no breakfast bar............ very very sad.
There is a bar on the market now, called "Zone Perfect", made by Abbott Laboratories in Columbus, Ohio. Their Chocolate Peanut Butter Bar tastes exactly like the old Carnation Breakfast Bar (Peanut Butter Crunch). They are not as crunchy, but neither are they "soft n' chewy". So far this is the closest I've come to a nutrition bar that tastes like Carnation.
MREs that I had in the military back in the 90's had an even better nutrition bar in them sometimes, just like a Carnation Peanut Butter Crunch bar but actually harder/denser. De-lish!
Oh my goodness, I had no idea. i thought I too was the only one. I stood in several grocery stores staring at the breakfast cereal bars, seeing the Carnation mixes and thinking they've got to be here somewhere. I really miss those things. I too ate them growing up. I'm 36, married, pregnant and with a four year old and would love to bring them back into our lives. Ugh, I wish there was some way to make them come back!
I loved the Chocolate Crunch the best. I remember the three boxes that I lost in 1987 as I boarded a ship in the CA delta. Bet there were some happy fishes, but if only I could get them back!
I ate them between classes in high school. Loved them. Every three years or so I look on the internet for them or the recipe. Carnation is really screwing us over man!!
I signed the petition. Did Carnation have one that was kind of like a brownie only it was very dry and had like a powder like texture? That’s the one I still stand in the cereal aisle just wishing that the box would magically appear before my eyes. Maybe someday we can all have one again.
The ORIGINAL Carnation Breakfast Bars were also the absolute highest in protein... their vitamin content and overall nutrition was so high that all the other "snacks" weren't even in the same league. Cheerios came closest (and won praise from Consumer Reports in the early 70's).
It's a bit disingenuous for the company to talk about insufficient sales when the truth is they simply NEVER supplied enough to keep their shelf space filled... it was always emptied within a day or two of their being re-stocked!
I used to special order a case at a time. Kept mine in the freezer... helped slow down my munching, but I ate about 3 a day and never gained weight (ok, I was moderately active, but not athletic).
RECIPE (sort of)--
The basis of that addictive flavor was malt (which is in rice krispies), and the bars' texture CAN be recreated at home by careful tinkering with rice krispies, miniature chocolate chips, crushed peanuts, and oats. Use karo corn syrup or marshmallows for binder, good quality chocolate for the coating. No cooking except to melt the chocolate coating -- and marshmallows if you use those instead of syrup.
(smiles)
I miss these bars too. Signed the petition and sent emails to Nestle. I will have to try making them.
i remember eating the breakfast bars every day at school for lunch and i loved them.Then my mom couldn't find them anymore that was so sad my lunch was never the same and we have been looking for them just in case they decided to brighten my day once again!
In my many years of internet use, i've only signed two petitions. One was to stop the state of VA for imposing a 2,000$ state tax on speeding tickets... Hundreds of thousands of people had signed by the time i had joined in, and each time i clicked "refresh", another 200 had signed. The second petition was to bring back the carnation breakfast bar.
you have to fight for what's important... for your country... for justice, you know?
Wow, never thought I'd see so many sharing my concerns. I have a daughter now and would like her to experience the many wonders of the orginal breakfast bar. I have forwarded the address of this forum to Nestle along with my pleadings to bring the things back. They probably here these gripes all the time, but who knows?
I loved them and wish for them every day. I don't know if it was mentioned here, but one of the reasons sales fell, is because they changed the recipe during the end of its run. I was really mad. I can't remember exactly the changes, but it wasn't the same. I actually stopped buying them and didn't care when they went away. Now, I wish the first version was back.
It is now 2009 and another poor soul is missing their Carnation Breakfast Bars. Like other posters' I still troll the isles. I honestly feel a twinge each time I pass the cereal aisle. Yes, I said pass. They were the only reason I ever went down that aisle. Will try the various bars that have been mentioned, but fear I will never again have those chocolate chip wonders.
Count me in as one of the mourners. I swear, Nestle would make a killing if they brought these back. Let's all flood them with emails. I am going to send them a link to this too! It's worth a try.... do it!
http://www.carnationinstantbreakfast.com/Info/Contactus.aspx
I would like to meet the rocket scientist who cancelled this product as a result of corporate GREED. Keep it up you CEO’s are in a league of stupidity of your own. You’ve beaten out the medical doctors. Congrats.
I doubt Nestle is interested in bringing back great products like the Breakfast Bars. Remember how delicious Carnation Instant Breakfast was in the 70s and 80s? A few years ago I tried the product again and it was awful. They changed the formulation... probably to save money. Last year I made the mistake of trying them once more thinking thousands would have had to have complained about it by then, only to find it to be the same lousy product. Thin, chalky and tasteless. Obviously they don't pay taste testers anymore, either, because nobody in their right mind would have allowed this formulation to pass. The most generous rating I can muster for this product on a scale of 10 is zero. The fact that this is their last original product, while the others have disappeared is nothing short of mind-blowing. I, too, loved the Breakfast Bars. I guess I'll just have to choose from the 800 different kinds of granola that all suck! Another great one that went even sooner were the General Mills Breakfast Squares. If they're going to stop making these products, at least make public the recipes.
I loved these when I was a kid. I think they fueled all my growth spurts as much as anything else, because I'd eat them one after another.
Then they changed the recipe and the taste and texture I loved was never the same. Then they pulled them off the market. Is this a continuing pattern in corporate America?
Executive A: Boy, we've got a good thing going -- a product that people can't stop consuming.
Executive B: I've got an idea. Let's "improve" it! We may not have invented this, but at least we can make some changes and take the credit for them.
Executive A: I like the way you think.
[Later...]
Executive A: We've got a problem. Our sales have tanked. We had a nice market niche with a unique product, but we blew it when we went chewy/sickly-sweet like everything else. Now we've alienated our customer base and lost the distinctiveness we had.
Executive B: Worse, we can't go back to the old recipe to fix the problem, because that would be an admission that we screwed things up.
Executive A: Why don't we just tell corporate that we're canceling the product to keep from choking off this other offering? They're not really in competition with each other, especially since the customers we had certainly wouldn't like it, but at least it gives us plausible cover. There've been enough decisions elsewhere that wouldn't withstand intense scrutiny, so as long as we keep up a good pretense on this one, they'll give us a pass to avoid Mutually Assured Destruction.
Executive B: What about any die-hard customers who ask?
Executive A: We'll just send out form letters telling them we weren't able to sustain sales. They'll go nuts, because they'll know they and others stopped buying the product because of the changes, but it's not like they're in a position to argue the point. We just have to make some sort of obligatory response and direct them to our other products, regardless of what they want.
Executive B: I like the way you think.
(Incidentally, the petition is now over 2200 signatures.)
I grew up on these bars just like the rest of you. Every once in a while I too think about them and wish for a full box to cross my path. Even today when I'm in my local store I take a peek on the shelves to see if just by chance are thoughts are heard and theirs a brand new crisp box sitting there waiting for me. Tomorrow my buddy and I plan to try the recipe we found here. I signed the petition.
Loved 'em... would LOVE it if they were brought back. I found the petition (see May 6, 2007 comment) and have added my signature. Thank you to all of you other fine folks who validated my memory of how incredible these things were. My favorite was the chocolate ones.
I loved them too. I will not eat any of the new ones on the market. I have added my signature to the petition. Maybe someday we will have them back. I am glad to find you all, as I thought I was the only one who remembered these GREAT breakfast bars. Chocolate Chocolate was my favorite.
I've been looking for these for years. I just called Giant Food Supermarket to see if they would order me some. I will let you know what they tell me. These bars were great!!!!!!!!!
I wrote to the company and they sent me a letter saying that right now they wouldnt be bringing them back but sent me a coupon for a free box of the Carnation Instant Breakfast Drink. Well I tried it and I want my bars back. It could in no way replace that. I signed the petition and hope that they will bring them back. I loved the Chocalate Chip and Chocolate Crunch bars, I am glad to see so many people feel the same.
As a teen and early years of college, my breakfast every single day was a carnation breakfast bar and a tall glass of ice cold milk. Every single day - and I never tired of it. I don't like other breakfast foods at all - and absolutely loved this as breakfast. Filling and satisfying. Since they stopped making these, I just skip breakfast. If I can't have these bars, I'd rather have nothing. :(
I am so glad that there are people that love these breakfast bars as much as I did. I don't know why they stopped making them. I hate all these other tbings they call breakfast bars. Maybe they with see this and bring them back. lol
Robert
Loved these. I signed the petition and am emailing it to friends. These Breakfast Bars were our quick breakfast when we were kids and running out to the bus stop. I loved the peanut butter crunch and the chocolate crunch ones best.
I to have signed the petition and just emailed Nestle as well...Man I would give a body organ up for 1 more original chocolate chip bar!
R U kidding me? This thread has been running for over three years now? LOVED THESE BARS!!!
My story is the same as everyone else, spent 6 years having a Breakfast Bar with two tall glasses of milk every morning from junior high through HS(okay, sometimes TWO bars). Grew up on the chocolate chip and then matured later on and was on the peanut butter chocolate chip. MMMMM, I can still taste them now.
You would think the no talent ass clowns in Carnation's front office would take notice when they have an established and willing customer base. I like that one guy's post with executives 1 & 2 discussing the fate of the bars. No doubt that has to be how crap like this happens.
BRING 'EM BACK!!!
(Foil lined wrapper and all!)
remember that?
;-)
I agree. I ate these for year and they were far better than anything on the market today.
Oh, this is funny! I've been wondering for years whatever happened to these bars and if I was the only one who remembered eating them and missing them! We even have an old home video of me eating one for breakfast when I was in high school. IMO, they were the best bars ever. Hands down. Sure do wish they'd come back; I know my kids would love them.
I loved these bars when I was a kid...I miss them so much. I forget when it happened but at one point they changed them and made them into more of a chewy granola bar and I hated it, stopped eating and stopped buying. Not too long there after they stopped making them.
Please bring back the original. I can still taste them and it makes my stomach grumble with delight.
I also grew up on these and have had a craving for them for awhile, checking all the store shelves to no avail. Today I finally decided to look online only to discover that they've been discontinued. Sure wish Nestle would bring them back. I too signed the petition and emailed it to my family.
I can't believe this thread has been running for over three years!! I, too, googled my way over here. That picture really takes me back...
When I was a kid, our only family vacations were camping trips. I never much cared for camping but Mom would always pack a few boxes of these wonder bars and that was the only thing I really looked forward to during the trip. When I was in college I bought a box only to discover they had been messed with in a big way. Chewy?!! I think not.
Ok this is not the Carnation instant breakfast bar I remember. The one I remember was the cakes with icing that was flavored with the instant drink mix flavors. Anyone remembr those?
The chocolate chip bars were my favorite. I could sit and eat a box in a day. There has never been anything like them. It was awful when they started making them chewy and then they just discontinued them. There is such a market for them you'd think they'd bring them back. It would have to be the same recipe though. NOT CHEWY. I really hope they make them again someday! I miss them.
YUMMY......I am so craving one right now!!!!! They were the best.
these bars are the best i think about these at least twice a week, i have never loved any other breakfast bar why cant they come back, and does anyone know for sure what happened to them, signed missing breakfast in plymouth michigan
Oh man, that picture of the box has me salivating! My mom would buy these very rarely despite my love for them - probably because I ate the whole box way too fast. Then, soon after I was out on my own and buying my own food - they disappeared! I can't believe they won't bring these back with the number of people who obviously crave them in a big way - and the fact is, bars are so popular these days - these would definitely sell in today's market. Come on, Nestle!
My life has been incomplete since Breakfast Bars left the market. I slightly remember eating my last ones in the early 90s. Since then I have been walking the four corners of the planet searching...looking...hoping that one day I can enjoy them again before I die. I am sad that my Son might never know of the joys of the CBB. Whoever said love lost is better than never finding love never had the tastiness of a Carnation Breakfast Bar ripped from their soul.
Isn't there another food manufacturer out there who can heed our call and make something that's close? Why won't Carnation listen? There's something totally amiss here. But it could still be an opportunity for someone else.
Unbelievable! I am among friends here. Nestle what are you doing? I have craved those bars ever since high school. Bring them back please!!!!!!!!
i guess this is pointless from what i've read, carnation has no plans to bring these back, but i cannot believe this m...hang on, yes i can believe, but i'm shocked after this many years, i'm not the only one still looking for something similar, and googling "carnation breakfast bars from the 70s" and getting tons of people like me jonesing for these crunchy, chocolately bars. ;)
This is too funny!!! I have been looking for these bars on and off for years. I loved them as a kid and would definitly buy them if I could find them. I signed the petition and I hope Carnation wakes up and realizes they have a viable product!!! Bring back the bars!!! Bring back the bars!!! Bring back the bars!!!
I, too, miss the goodness! My friends couldn't understand but I recognized greatness at a young age. I searched for a long time before giving up hope. I'm glad to know that I am not alone. Has anyone tried the copycat recipe?
this is just too funny, I was just out visiting my brother and we were talking about these and the old space food sticks. My two brothers and I grew up eating these for breakfast almost everday
and just about ended up needing therapy when they took them off the
shelf. I am always looking for them to come back but I am still waiting just like the rest of you.
It is funny because my brother just came back from the Big Island
and went to an observatory where he found the old space food sticks
and picked one up for all of us (at $3.00 a stick that was all he was spending) it was not justifiable to buy a case of 40.
I want my breakfast bars and I want them NOW!!!!!!!!!!
me & my cousin were just chatting and remembering how AWESOME peanut butter crunch carnation bars were! They are like little bricks of gold - if they were out on the market we would go on a rampage hoarding all we could! its like an obsession of yummyness! how devastated we feel that these are not in production. But nobody can take away our memories of the gratification we felt when our taste buds encounted them once upon a time! We'll carry that with us to our dying day!
Here is the CEO's address in regards to the 2009 business plan for Nestle...It is all based on being nutritional..the bar is forever dead...
CEO's address by Mr Paul Bulcke
Thank you Peter, and good afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen.
It is an honour and privilege to present our results from 2008 and to explain our business strategy for 2009 and beyond.
As you have heard, your Company has created a strong momentum and the results of 2008 reflect this.
In 2008, our Group sales grew to almost 110 billion Swiss Francs, representing 8.3% organic growth. As for profits, we achieved an EBIT of 15.7 billion Swiss Francs, with a margin improvement of 30 basis points, which is 50 basis points in constant currencies. Our EBIT margin has now reached 14.3%.
Net profit also climbed significantly to 18 billion Swiss Francs, including the profits from the sale of 24.8% of Alcon to Novartis. Our underlying earnings per share grew 10.9% in constant currencies.
The share buyback programme, launched in September 2007 is on track and will be completed, subject to market conditions, within the 36-month period originally planned. In 2008, the Group spent 8.7 billion Swiss Francs on buying back its own shares, which brings the total value of repurchased shares to 13.1 billion Swiss Francs. Combined with the 4.6 billion Swiss Francs paid in dividends in April 2008, we returned a total of 13.3 billion Swiss Francs to you, Ladies and Gentlemen, our shareholders, during 2008.
Since 2005, we have returned a total of 32.3 billion Swiss Francs to you, and it is likely that we will return an additional 9.1 billion this year.
In 2009, the Group is giving preference to the dividend, as evidenced by the 14.8% increase that we are proposing to you today. This differentiates us from present market trends. In addition, this year we intend to invest around 4 billion Swiss Francs in the repurchase of our own shares.
The Food and Beverages business was the key contributor to our performance in 2008, with 8.2% organic growth and a 40 basis point improvement in EBIT margins in constant currencies. For the second year in a row, most sectors contributed to this result. Each of our three Zones, our geographical areas, achieved good levels of organic growth as well as EBIT margin improvements.
This demonstrates the momentum in our business, and is one of the reasons why we remain confident for this year, despite the very tough environment.
The main force behind our performance is our brands. Their success is increasingly derived from their inherent nutritional credentials. Our Company’s commitment to growing our brands towards consumers is demonstrated by a 7.5% increase in consumer-facing marketing spend in constant currencies. The engine of these efforts remains innovation and renovation. Taken together, our annual R&D expenditure has increased by 10%, and we are constantly looking to maximise leverage of our R&D platform.
The billionaire brands, more than 70% of our food and beverage sales, remain the key drivers of growth. In 2008 many outperformed their markets, driven by our continuing focus on nutrition, health and wellness; by our accelerated targeting of the particular needs of consumers in different economic circumstances; by our significant presence in emerging markets; by around 10% growth with our top 10 customers; and by our multi-channel distribution and multi-price point strategies.
On the efficiency side, in 2008 we saw the benefit of our accelerated focus on cost savings. Earlier than others, we anticipated the increase in commodity prices and implemented rigorous cost controls. This helped compensate the impact of these effects on our cost of goods sold. It also benefited our distribution, marketing and administration costs. Through this anticipatory action, we were prepared for a more difficult environment, whilst concentrating our efforts on growth generation.
So, despite the difficult situation during the last months of 2008, as Peter mentioned previously, we not only achieved the Nestlé Model, we outperformed it.
In fact, our Company is constantly accelerating and evolving. We don’t wait for bad times to redeploy our resources, or to otherwise adapt, but we try to anticipate coming trends. This means that we are better positioned to face turbulence, and even storms, and see them through. We are constantly finetuning and engineering our organisation for optimal performance. Our focus is clearly on acceleration! Getting more done with the same resources, doing things quicker, faster and smarter, and with more impact.
Nestlé has 280 000 people who know that to achieve our ambition we must share one vision and be aligned behind a clear strategy. We are all aligned behind the same goal which is to be recognised as the world leader in nutrition, health and wellness, and to be the reference for financial performance in our industry.
We express this strategic alignment at our Company with a simple chart which we call the Nestlé Roadmap. This sets out the strategic and performance framework that will allow us to achieve our ambition. It is key to our continued growth and ever more relevant in today’s environment. This is why we explain this in detail to you, our shareholders, in our Management Report of 2008.
Our Roadmap shows what we want to be and outlines the way we are going to achieve this.
So what are our competitive advantages? They are our diverse product and brand portfolio; our industry-leading R&D capability; our unmatched geographic spread; and our people, values and culture.
What are the growth drivers? We have identified four. They are, firstly, nutrition, health and wellness; secondly, emerging markets and consumers, including popularly positioned products (PPP); thirdly, the out-of-home market; and fourthly, premiumisation.
Finally, we continue to work with our four strategic pillars which guide our actions on a daily basis. They are innovation and renovation; operational efficiency; global product availability; and consumer communication.
The strength of this roadmap is its clarity and simplicity. It allows our people to delegate and empower their teams with increased individual responsibility and autonomy across all levels of our company. This alignment permits more flexibility, more initiative, more creativity, more discipline and faster action and execution.
We believe that our strategy places us in a good position, and is all the more appropriate in difficult times. Not only does it give us excellent defensive characteristics, it also creates a platform for profitable growth that has proven itself to be one of the most vigorous in the industry. This will continue to guide and inspire our success through the present economic downturn.
With that, Ladies and Gentlemen, I hand you back to our Chairman. Peter.
Well if the company won't start making our breakfast bars, how about selling the recipe to a company that will?
I too enjoyed the crunchy, nutty granola texture of the bars. The chocolate coating was always so good and hard to believe healthful. I couldn't enjoy a bar as much without a cold, full glass of milk. My favorite flavor was the chocolate chip.
If Nestle doesn't feel it would be in their best interests to bring the bar back, they should sell the recipe to a company that does want to make it. In addition, the new company should also be allowed to put "recipe formerly known as the Carnation Breakfast Bar" on their label.
A rebirth of this product would be successful because if people are still craving the taste and texture after years of being off the market Carnation must have done something right in the first place. - Beth B.
I loved them in Jr High, High School and beyond, until they were softer - didn't care for them. This was my staple breakfast a Carnation Breakfast Bar and a Diet Coke. I had then switched back to my childhood breakfast - Cream of Wheat and now to Oatmeal (Cream of Wheat is insainely expensive). I google every so often to find the Carnation Breakfast Bars - they were the best! Let's keep trying to get them to make them again!
Oh my gosh, I too loved those bars. My ex-husband and I used to eat them all of the time. My favorite was the chocolate chip ones. I liked these bars because they were crunchy and yummy. The bars now days are just not the same. I wish they would start making them again. I would buy them like crazy. It sounds like a lot of other people would too. I am glad I came to this cite. I think of these bars often. I would love to be eating one right now.
I love these bars. Everytime I walk down the granola/breakfast bar aisle in a grocery store, I still am a little sad when I don't see them! My sister and I both have fond memories of eating them before school.
When I did a search on Carnation Breakfast Bars, I had my fingers crossed and hoped something would appear as far as purchasing them. I was so disappointed to read this and find out they are officially discontinued and a tear came to my eye. Is it really over? Wil I never taste that amazing creation again? Excuse me.....I need a tissue.....
Another vote for the best bar ever made. I was eating some kind of small South Beach Mint bar, and the texture of it made me remember the bar I loved as a small girl... cool to find out I'm not alone!
Bottom line is ..there great, and greatness sells.. we all eat things that may not be the best for us..but taste great, BRING THEM BACK..The PEOPLE have spoken!!!!
Still missing them.....
I haven't tried these but just found a copy recipe online:
Ingredients
1 cup Spanish peanut, peeled and crushed to a near powder
1 cup rolled toasted oats
1 cup Rice Krispies
1/2 cup miniature chocolate chip
1/3 cup light Karo syrup
36 ounces milk chocolate
Directions
1Combine all dry ingredients then add Karo syrup and mix thoroughly.
2Line a small pan with wax paper and pack the mixture firmly into pan.
3Melt milk chocolate and spread over top of mixture and refridgerate until firm. At least one hour.
I also tried to sign the petition mentioned above but server not found.
Has anyone reached out to Nestle directly? I SO miss these things, and the fact that people Google it and find this page says a lot. There hasn't been a breakfast bar on the market since this one that's as good.
I can relate to the author above that stated he/she still looks for them everytime he/she wanders down the breakfast bar aisle. I was so disappointed when I got to this site and saw that I wasn't missing it or that there wasn't some place you could buy them online.
It's hard to believe Carnation wouldn't consider a limited production to test the waters. Could put them back on the shelves in the same old yellow box and they'd fly off the shelves. Who has this kind of brand value after 20 years? I don't see blogs for other breakfast bars that have come and gone over the years.
You can still sign the petition as I did tonight. I am #2797! just take the petition.html off of the end of the address and it comes right up. The unfortunate reality is that corporate America sees dollar signs, they don't see what the consumer wants. I personally would buy a lifetime supply of them if they were available.
I tried a Pria bar and it's nothing like the Breakfast Bar. A Watchamacallit comes closer, although still way off!
While traveling in Germany, I stumbled on something close. It's called a Corny Cereal Bar and has a similar flavor and that hearty, crunchy, pleasingly gritty consistency.
Just signed the petition #2844
I wish i knew how to make them.
Looks like I could sell a bunch of them here. Of corse I would eat the profits.
Dave
I loved these bars!!! I have witten to Nestle and asked them to bring back the bars. I also told them if they could just make them and sell them on their website we people would buy them, that way they have no advertising expense....but we'll see what happens.
I was born in 72. Ate these religiously all through childhood. The reason I found this site is because I stumbled onto a bar that is fairly similar. Gatorade Chocolate Chip Nutrition bars. My co-worker gave me a box of them because he said they were too dry and crunchy(sound familiar?) One bite, and it really took me back, and I found myself here while looking for the real McCoy. The Gatorade bars don't have the chocolate coating, but the taste and texture are pretty close.
My mom couldn't keep enough of these on our shelves at home for my 2 brothers and me. The 3 of us could destroy a box (and a gallon of milk) in about 10 seconds. I shall continue to pray that someone at Carnation/Nestle/Whoever-they-are will come to their senses and start producing this amazing and tasty product again.
Wow I'm so glad I've found others who loved these things as much as I did! I was born in 71 and ate these so much my mom used to have to hide the box from me so I wouldn't eat them all at one time! I signed the petition and hope they would bring them back as I crave them every now and then. The chocolate chip ones were my favorite. The other childhood food I remember was Breakfast Squares and I think they were made by Pilsbury maybe (?) But the Carnation breakfast bars were THE BEST!!
How sad ! The texture is off, but the flavor of the "Quaker Chewy Dipps Chocolatey Covered Granola Bar " in Chocolate Chip flavor is the closest I have found. My Hubby still drinks Carnation Instant Breakfast every day, even though it tastes completely different thatn it used to taste. Why do companies continue to offer us new things we don't want and deny us of the old things we loved?
I Googled, as many of you must have, to see if I could find the Breakfast Bar or atleast a recipe. Who knew there were others out there like me! My husband and I talk about these bars all the time! I signed the petition (some 2800+) and emailed Nestle. I did that before getting to the 2009 posts. I guess there is no hope, but I still sent the link to Nestle so they could read for themselves. I will still keep my fingers crossed. Never say never.
I honestly thought my family and I were the only one's out there actually sad over a cereal bar not being made anymore! I (like everyone else) have searched and searched and tried almost every bar imaginable with no luck. Nothing compares to these bars. I grew up on them and actually have told my daughter about them. If anyone could give me the petition address and the people to contact to give me a glimmer of hope that I will see these again, I would greatly appreciate it.
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