Milling & Baking News - February 26, 2019 - 15

Financial Results

General Mills describes 'clear
improvement' in U.S. business

BOCA RATON, FLA. - After a disap- media. Mr. Nudi said the company is
pointing fiscal 2017, General Mills, Inc. investing in new packaging and formhas refocused its North America Retail ing new partnerships.
organization on executing against its
Speaking more directly to the proggrowth priorities. The strategy has ress made in individual categories, Mr.
paid off in steady improvement over Nudi said General Mills has been enthe past 20 months, said Jonathan J. couraged by the improvement made
Nudi, president of North America Re- in U.S. cereal.
tail.
"Over the last six quarters, category
In a Feb. 19 presentation at the Con- retail sales trends have improved sesumer Analyst Group of New York quentially, posting growth over the
Conference in Boca Raton, Mr. Nudi said General Mills has seen "clear
improvement" in its U.S.
business since the start of
fiscal 2018 and continuing
into fiscal 2019.
"We are holding or
growing share in 7 of our
top 10 categories this year
on top of solid performance a year ago," he said.
"While there's still work to
do in areas like snack bars
GENERAL MILLS, INC.
... we're encouraged by
the broad improvement across these past three months even without incategories, which represent more than cluding fast-growing non-major chan80% of our retail sales base."
nels," Mr. Nudi explained. "This imMr. Nudi said consumer-focused provement has been driven by better
innovation is one of the keys to com- fundamental execution by the brand
peting effectively, and General Mills and manufacturers, and we've been
has set itself up well in that regard. In- playing our part. In fact, our strong
novation in the first half of fiscal 2019 performance is translating to consisincludes Cheerios Oat Crunch, YQ tent market share gains and resulted
yogurt and Betty Crocker Mug Treats. in General Mills taking outright share
In the second half of the year the com- leadership in the category last year.
pany plans to roll out Cinnamon Toast
"The cereal category thrives when
Crunch Churros, Go-Gurt Dunkers the leading players bring great innoand Annie's Sour Bunnies.
vation and consumer news. Support"This improved innovation per- ed by engaging brand building and
formance has been driven in part by in-store activation, that's our formula
changes we've made to our innovation for success.
process, leveraging an agile approach
"Fiscal 2019 has been another great
we call Consumer First design," he year for General Mills cereal innovasaid. "This mindset favors speed over tion. We launched three of the five
perfection, pitching business teams
to be the fastest to the first dollar by
General Mills share price
launching products in the market and
per share
getting consumer feedback much ear$60
lier in the development cycle along
multiple opportunities for iteration
and improvement before a full-scale
$50
roll-out. The result has been accelerating speed-to-market on products like
Epic Performance Bars and stronger
$40
performance on new platform innovations like Oui by Yoplait."
In addition to evolving its innovation process, General Mills is explor$30
March May July Sept. Nov. Jan.
ing new ways to engage consumers
2018
2019
with its brands beyond traditional
bakingbusiness.com / world-grain.com

largest new products in the category,
including Cheerios Oat Crunch, Maple
Cheerios and Lucky Charms Frosted
Flakes. We have another strong lineup in the second half, including Cinnamon Toast Crunch Churros, which
launched last month and is off to a
strong start, and Blueberry Cheerios,
which hit shelves in our fourth quarter."
Mr. Nudi said General Mills also has
made strides in its U.S. yogurt business, increasing its competitiveness in
the category over the past two years.
He said the overall U.S. yogurt category has been dragged down
by the Greek segment, a
category in which General
Mills is only a limited player. Instead, General Mills
is well positioned in the
growing areas of the U.S.
yogurt category, including
traditional-style yogurts,
yogurt for children and the
better-for-you segment.
"Our path to growth in
U.S. yogurt requires we stabilize our core while bringing category-leading innovations to new segments like 'simply
better' that are driving growth," he
said. "On our core, real fruit news on
original-style Yoplait has helped to
churn the single-serve line to growth
in fiscal '19. And equity flavor extensions like Sour Patch Kids and Jolly
Rancher are driving mid-single-digit
year-to-date retail sales growth for
Go-Gurt."
Meanwhile, Mr. Nudi said General Mills is putting in a lot of effort
to improve its competitiveness in U.S.
snack bars.
"We'll improve our trends in Nature Valley in the back half of fiscal
'19 with stronger merchandising and
compelling innovation, including a
new crispy creamy wafer bar that's
launching in the fourth quarter," he
said. "On Fiber One, we're working to
renovate the product line to get it back
into the consideration set for weight
managers, the brand's core consumer.
Look for that renovation early next
fiscal year. In the meantime, we'll
continue to support our new Protein
One launch, which has had success
leveraging its high-protein, low-sugar
positioning. And we'll continue to increase awareness, broaden distribution and launch exciting innovation
on Larabar, a brand that has delivered
strong double-digit compound annual
growth and retail sales over the past
three years." MBN
Milling & Baking News

February 26, 2019 / 15

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Milling & Baking News - February 26, 2019

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