Wonderful Pistachios is aiming to boost the size of the nuts market with its first UK TV push and second listing at a big four ­supermarket.

The brand which is owned by US company Roll Global has been selling 150g bags of unsalted, salted and salt & pepper roasted pistachios through Tesco stores for the past two years, and extended the line-up this summer with a sweet chilli variant. It has just rolled the range out to Sainsbury's, which is stocking all four variants in 40g snack packs as well as 150g and 250g packs.

On 17 November, the brand will start a four-week run of the Get Crackin' TV adverts it claimed helped sales grow 250% in two years in the US. The ad also boosted the ­pistachio market in France when it aired there this summer.

There was still plenty of room for growth in the UK market, it said, claiming that consumption of pistachios was a fifth of that in France, which has a similar-sized population. "It will take time but the UK market should be much bigger. People there like salty snacks," Roll Global EMEA MD Dominic Engels told The Grocer at the Anuga show in Cologne this week. "We will raise awareness we are waking a sleeping giant."

Roll Global, which also owns pomegranate juice brand Pom Wonderful, has expanded its nut lines with a Wonderful Almonds range in France and Italy, which it plans to introduce to the UK soon.

"The lack of a shell is a real point of difference and opens almonds up to be eaten as a snack while driving. And they are much easier to eat at work than pistachios," said Engels.