Milling & Baking News - July 17, 2018 - 10

Business

General Mills touts innovation
pipeline for fiscal year 2019
NEW YORK - The introductions
of a Cascadian Farm honey crunch
breakfast cereal made from the grain
Kernza, Nature Valley granola bites
and a Pillsbury stuffed meatball and
pepperoni submarine sandwich are
among new grain-based products on
tap for fiscal 2019 at General Mills, Inc.
At the company's 2018 annual investor day July 11 at the New York Stock
Exchange, General Mills executives
focused on stepped-up new product
introductions as a key to restoring topline growth at the Minneapolis-based
company.
In introductory remarks, Jeffrey L.
Harmening, chairman and chief executive officer, said the bar for success
is high in the hyper-competitive food
market today.
"Our purpose is to make food people love, not tolerate, not like a little
bit, but food that people love," he said.
Putting fiscal 2019 objectives into
perspective, Mr. Harmening cited
the company's three principal priorities for growth - competing effectively, accelerating certain key platforms and reshaping the company's
portfolio for growth. In fiscal 2018,
General Mills was most successful
at the first of these objectives, effectively arresting an extended period
of top-line weakness.
"We're going to get to historic levels
of new product growth in fiscal 2019,"
he said. "We have got a terrific lineup
of new products that's even better
than the one we had in fiscal 2018."
Divestitures of weaker parts of the
company's business also will help lift
growth rates, Mr. Harmening said. The
company "will look to divest roughly
5% of our portfolio," he said.
Drilling more deeply into company
plans by product group was Jonathon
J. Nudi, senior vice-president and
group president of North America
Retail. Mr. Nudi said the company expects new products (launched in the
previous 12 months) will account for
about 6% of net sales across the company's portfolio.
He said the company had a "great
year in cereal" in fiscal 2018, with
growth in pounds and dollars and a
stronger share position.
"Most of our growth last year was
behind news on our base business
across a broad set of retailers, and we
drove increased penetration across
the demographics we invested in,"
10 / July 17, 2018

Milling & Baking News

Mr. Nudi said. "Campaigns, such us
Cheerios Good Goes Round, resonate
with consumers, and we had a terrific
partnership with Ellen DeGeneres to
drive 1 million acts of good across the
country."
For fiscal 2019, General Mills will
continue its partnership with Ellen

GENERAL MILLS, INC.

DeGeneres and will increase its focus
on Honey Nut Cheerios.
In the company's "taste brands," Mr.
Nudi said General Mills has marketing plans for Cinnamon Toast Crunch
aimed at extending the brand's reach
to new occasions such as snacking and
to new consumers, such as Hispanic
families.
"In the back half, we'll bring exciting new snackable products to the
Cinnamon Toast Crunch franchise,"
Mr. Nudi said.
For Lucky Charms, Mr. Nudi said
General Mills will follow the brand's
"biggest year ever" with "exciting
marshmallow events throughout the
year." To boost Reese's Puffs, General Mills will increase its focus on
young adults, partnering with NBA
2K, a video game, for media and onpack promotion.
In snack bars, Mr. Nudi said General Mills was addressing a soft
spot in its portfolio - Fiber One.
Toward that end, the company will
introduce a protein line with low
sugar and high fiber. The company
also will look to accelerate growth
in its other brands, beginning with
Nature Valley.
"In the first half (of fiscal 2019), we'll
introduce new granola bites, nut butter coated in chocolate and granola,"
Mr. Nudi said.
Sales of the company's Larabar
brand have nearly doubled over the
past two years to $170 million at retail, Mr. Nudi said. Also in fiscal 2019,
General Mills will launch Epic Performance Bars and will expand the

GoodBelly bar, a snack bar with digestive benefits.
Noting that General Mills is the second-largest natural and organic food
company in the United States, with
more than $1 billion in sales, Mr. Nudi
said strong growth is anticipated in
the new year.
"Annie's is our largest natural organic brand and will continue to be a
significant driver of our growth," he
said. "Our fiscal '19 plan for Annie's
starts with growing the core. Mac &
Cheese is the foundation of our Annie's portfolio."
He also cited limited-edition items
"leading in the regenerative agricultural space" that will be introduced
this year. The products - Mac &
Cheese and Bunny Grahams - have
generated "incredible media response" and in-store displays.
"In addition to improving the taste
in some of our (Cascadian Farm) cereal and bar items and bringing great
new items to market like Cascadian
Farm granola, we returned to our roots
on this fantastic brand," Mr. Nudi
said. "We partnered with farmers to
bring Kernza to market this fiscal year.
Kernza is a long-rooted perennial,
which helps its sustainability because
it reduces tilling and drives more carbon into the earth. We'll launch a new
Kernza honey crunch cereal in January,
but this product has already earned its
coverage in everything from National
Geographic to Food & Wine magazine."
Discussing the Pillsbury brand was
Shawn P. O'Grady, group president of
Convenience & Foodservice and senior vice-president of global revenue
development.
He said General Mills has eliminated baking mixes as one of its six
product platforms, replacing it instead
with frozen baked foods. The other
platforms are cereal, snacks, yogurt,
frozen biscuits and frozen meals.
Turning to the convenience store
sector, Mr. Nudi said opportunities
to compete with quick-service restaurants have emerged.
"Last year, we entered the category with the Pillsbury Stuffed Waffle
at 7-Eleven stores, which continues
to be one of their top-turning breakfast items," he said. "We recently
expanded our stuffed waffle offering nationally. We'll build on this
success with the introduction of the
Pillsbury stuffed meatball and pepperoni sub at 7-Eleven stores this
fall, which will get us into the lunch
and dinner dayparts." MBN
bakingbusiness.com / world-grain.com

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Milling & Baking News - July 17, 2018

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