NEW YORK, July 12, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- General Mills
executives updated investors and analysts on its global priorities
for fiscal 2018 at the company's annual Investor Day event at the
New York Stock Exchange.
General Mills CEO Jeff Harmening,
who transitioned to the role June 1,
said the company remains committed to its Consumer First strategy
and will look to global prioritization to unlock growth
opportunities including opportunities in e-commerce.
"We'll remain laser-focused on knowing our consumer and what's
driving them," said Harmening. "While the biggest shift in our
industry in the last five years was driven by changing consumer
food values, I believe the most significant change that will impact
the next five years will be in how consumers get their food, driven
by the rapid acceleration of e-commerce. We see this as an exciting
opportunity for General Mills."
E-commerce represents about 1.5 percent of the company's total
sales in the U.S. today. The company expects this number to grow to
5 percent by fiscal year 2020. It also continues to see strong
double-digit growth ahead for its global e-commerce business, led
by the U.S.
Priorities for topline growth
Harmening identified four key priorities for fiscal 2018 as the
company works to improve its topline growth trends:
- Grow cereal globally, including the company's joint venture
Cereal Partners Worldwide;
- Improve its U.S. Yogurt business through innovation;
- Invest in differential growth opportunities including the
company's global Häagen Dazs and Old El Paso businesses, global
snack bars platform, and its portfolio of Natural and Organic
brands across North America;
and
- Manage its foundation businesses with appropriate
investment.
Grow global cereal
The company has seen recent benefits from both wellness and
taste improvements in cereal. Successful wellness initiatives have
included gluten-free news, the removal of artificial flavors and
colors, and whole grain messaging. The company will deliver new
great-tasting cereals across U.S. brands including new varieties of
its "Toast Crunch" line, new Blueberry Chex and Banana Nut
Cheerios, and global new products including Nesquik and Cheerios
all-family granolas, as well as expansion of successful recent
global innovation like Lion
Wild.
U.S. Yogurt innovation
General Mills is reshaping its U.S. yogurt portfolio through
product news and renovation on its core Yoplait and Go-Gurt
products, expanding its presence in organic with Annie's and
Liberté, and developing a new "simply better" yogurt
segment. The company recently introduced Oui by Yoplait,
inspired by a traditional French recipe that delivers remarkable
taste with simple ingredients like whole milk and real fruit. The
product is carefully cultured in individual glass jars over an
8-hour period. The result is a thick and creamy yogurt with a
remarkable, subtly sweet taste that is different from any
national-brand yogurts in the market today.
Investing for differential growth
Häagen-Dazs, snack bars, Old El Paso and the company's Natural
& Organic business in North
America are four key areas Harmening pointed to as
investment priorities. With roughly $4
billion dollars in combined net sales, they're a meaningful
portion of the company's overall business.
Häagen-Dazs has been renovating key shops, expanding
its line of stick bars to new markets, and growing
distribution in existing regions and new geographies. The
brand recently entered five new markets including, Australia. This summer Häagen Dazs is
launching a global brand refresh that encompasses everything from
the packaging to the advertising to the shop experiences.
The global snack bar category is another global growth area with
brands including Nature Valley, Fiber One and LÄRABAR. The company
will expand much of its U.S. innovation success to Europe with Nature Valley Nut Butter Biscuits
and growing the Fiber One franchise.
Old El Paso continues to see
success around the world as the global leader in Mexican food.
Plans are focused on expanding product innovation, such as Stand
'N' Stuff Mini soft taco boats and new product innovation like
Stand 'N' Stuff Mini kits in Europe and Blue Corn Stand 'N' Stuff shells in
the U.S.
The fourth area where the company is investing for differential
growth is its Natural & Organic business in North America, which has been growing
aggressively since General Mills first acquired the Cascadian
Farm and Muir Glen brands in 2000. With nine brands today,
including Annie's and EPIC, LÄRABAR and Liberté, the company
expects this portfolio to generate $1.5
billion dollars in net sales by 2020.
Foundation businesses
Foundation businesses, which
include refrigerated dough, soup, and baking mixes amongst others,
deliver consistent profit to fund topline growth initiatives.
General Mills will make strategic investments on key brands
including a new line of Progresso organic soups and new Pillsbury
pizza dough that takes the dough 'out of the can' in a new rolled
format.
The company also sees opportunity for further margin expansion,
driven by continued Holistic Margin Management, continued benefits
from incremental cost-savings initiatives as well as benefits from
global sourcing and process transformation initiatives. The
company's efforts helped drive more than 200 basis points of
expansion in adjusted operating profit margin over the last two
years. General Mills will moderate the pace of expansion in fiscal
2018 as it invests to restore topline growth.
The replay of today's General Mills presentation is
available on investors.generalmills.com.
About General Mills
General Mills is a leading global food company that serves the
world by making food people love. Its brands include
Cheerios, Annie's, Yoplait, Nature
Valley, Fiber One, Häagen-Dazs,
Betty Crocker,
Pillsbury, Old El
Paso, Wanchai
Ferry, Yoki and more. Headquartered in
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA,
General Mills generated fiscal 2017 consolidated net sales of US
$15.6 billion, as well as another US
$1.0 billion from its proportionate
share of joint-venture net sales.
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SOURCE General Mills