Kellogg's has axed its FruitaBü range of fruit snacks, blaming poor sales and the state of the economy.
The range, which included Apple Crisps and Fruit Juicies, was launched in January 2008 with the aim of giving consumers a convenient way of getting one of their 5-a-day fruit or vegetable portions.
Despite their health claims, the products were a discretionary purchase, admitted Kellogg's UK sales director Mike Taylor, who claimed cash-strapped shoppers had found it "easier to pull away from" premium-priced snacks such as FruitaBü than more staple grocery items.
"Our whole approach to FruitaBü was to bring a big branded manufacturing approach to a category that lacked scale," said Taylor. "But the footfall and the visibility of the fruit snack category from a shopper perspective is difficult to bring scale to.
"Combined with the commodity crashes that we were experiencing on fruit, all the metrics didn't stack up for us so we decided to pull out of FruitaBü, rather than pursue it and go on half-heartedly."
Taylor said there were "much bigger opportunities" in Kellogg's core cereal business and claimed the decision to ditch the range was indicative of the company's new, get-tough approach.
"We made a tough decision, but I think it is one of the things that we as a business are getting much better at."
Last month, Kellogg's launched a £3m, six-month campaign to encourage sales of its range of breakfast cereal brands.