Company Overview

General Mills is the nation’s second largest cereal maker after Kellogg, and the sixth largest food company in the world. The company is a global food powerhouse, with more than 100 consumer brands in the United States, operations in more 18 countries around the world, and exports to 130-plus countries. General Mills has organized itself into 11 major business units: Baking Products, Big G Cereals, Meals, Organic, Pillsbury, Snacks, Yogurt, Bakeries and Food Service, International, and Joint Ventures.

The company’s brands include not only those that festoon the commercial space of Saturday morning cartoons (Wheaties, Cheerios, Lucky Charms, Kix, Fruit Roll-Ups), but also Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Muir Glen, Cascadian Farms, and Häagan-Dazs. Some of their beloved food spokes-characters include the Green Giant, Pillsbury Doughboy, and Trix rabbit.

Most of General Mills’ brands can be found in supermarkets, but the company has more recently entered the natural foods market by acquiring its Small Planet subsidiary, which produces Muir Glen and Cascadian Farms products. It also entered the growing weight-management food arena in 2007 by partnering with Curves International to create cereal and granola bars.

Like any food services company, General Mills has come under scrutiny for some ingredients in their products. In 2007, General Mills pulled its sugar-replacement children’s cereals because of poor performance—perhaps due to consumer resistance to added artificial sweetener. That same year it announced the removal of the flavor chemical dicetyl, which was suspected of causing lung problems for plant workers, from its Pop-Secret microwave popcorn products. Due to consumer demand in 2009, General Mills began removing the rBST growth hormone from its Yoplait yogurts.