diff --git a/kiss b/kiss
index 26745e3..eb8a55d 100755
--- a/kiss
+++ b/kiss
@@ -1283,6 +1283,11 @@ main() {
     # variable is ever changed.
     old_ifs=$IFS
 
+    # Force the C locale to speed up things like 'grep' which disable unicode
+    # etc when this is set. We don't need unicode and a speed up is always
+    # welcome.
+    export LC_ALL=C LANG=C
+
     # Catch errors and ensure that build files and directories are cleaned
     # up before we die. This occurs on 'Ctrl+C' as well as success and error.
     trap pkg_clean EXIT INT