General Mills ( Gm )

Kool-Aid, a brand that offers flavored drink mix owned by Kraft Foods is part of the soft drink industry. Three main players control the soft drink industry and they are Coke (42.8%), Pepsi (31.1%), and Dr. Pepper Snapple Group (15%). First of all, a soft drink is defined as any drink that contains water, but not alcohol. This includes soda, juice/punch, energy drink, tea, sports drink, and water. There are more than a thousand different soft drinks in the U.S. market, and among the one thousand variety of drinks, the three main players offer about 400 of them (40%). Since the three dominant brands pretty much control the market, most of the small players compete by offering inexpensive drinks that are often only sold in particular retail chain such as Sam’s Choice and Shasta Beverages. They also compete in the newer category of soft drinks such as tea and energy

The second step will be assessing the supply market and discovering who offers what. General Mills is a member of the World Cocoa Foundation, which helps create contact with cocoa farmers, origin governments, and environmental organizations. It is very important to consider environmentally and labor friendly options when developing my sourcing strategy for cocoa beans. General Mills does not want to risk partnering with an unethical cocoa farmer who violates labor laws using young children or putting the workers through harsh conditions.

This results from the fact that it is a mature segment with many well established companies vying for market share. The industry is highly consolidated and very fragmented. To grow their businesses, companies rely heavily on mergers and acquisitions to capture additional market share. Historically, the grocery industry has been characterized by slow growth which results in strong price competition and the development of aggressive marketing campaigns between existing firms. Perceived product quality and strong brand recognition by consumers are the basis of competition among firms in the industry. The source of General Mills’ competitive advantage lies in its ability to develop innovative products and highly reputable brands. As a result, they hold cost leadership positions across a number of grocery categories. Exhibit 1 shows the top US companies according to their sale of packaged foods globally. Market leaders include Kraft Foods, PepsiCo, Nestle, Mars, Kellogg, and General Mills, however, neither company possess an overwhelming share of global sales. This is in part due to the large degree of product diversity throughout the industry and the strong brand rivalry of each competitor’s labels.

General Mills is one of the major producers in consumer foods and it started off in 1866 with two flour mills (General Mills). In 1928 the company merged several smaller milling companies together to create packaged food and began to form the company that it is today (General Mills, Inc.). General Mills has not shied away from selling, acquiring and establishing new brands to stay competitive in the global markets (*). In the past, General Mills has tried selling not just food but toys, jewelry and apparel (General Mills, Inc.). Today General Mills has a never ending list of food products from Cheerios and Cinnamon Toast Crunch to Progresso soups and Haagen-Dazs ice cream. The current mission for the company “is to make lives healthier, easier and richer. General Mills is Nourishing Lives (*).” They plan on achieving their mission by these three statements:

Bargaining power of buyers: Businesses and individuals all fall under the customer's category for this industry. Big customers do get volume discounts and can negotiate prices with sales representatives. However smaller customers have to take what is being offered to them. The only say they have is that they can switch between the players, but due to intense competition, the prices offered are generally the same across the service band.

Boulder Brands is a consumer-packaged foods company providing healthy food to major retail channels. The company is headquartered in Boulder, CO, but has manufacturing facilities in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. Boulder Brands owns and operates Glutino®, Udi’s Gluten Free®, Earth Balance®, Level Life™, EVOL foods and Smart Balance®. This report will analyze the financial statements and accompanying notes for Boulder Brands’ fiscal year 2013 (January 1, 2013 – December 31, 2013). To effectively examine the financial standing of Boulder Brands this report will compare Boulder Brands financial statements to Annie’s financial statements for the fiscal year (April 1, 2013 – March, 31, 2014). Like Boulder Brands, Annie’s is a natural food company focusing on the production of organic macaroni and cheese, snack crackers, graham crackers and fruit snacks. Annie’s is headquartered in Berkeley, CA and sells their products in the U.S. and Canada. General Mills acquired Annie’s in September 2014. Both companies take a sustainable approach to the production of healthy, natural food.

Advertising investment of nearly $1.1 billion in 2009 continued our consistent and strong investment into building our brands. At approximately 9% of net sales, this investment is significantly above that of our peers in the packaged foods industry. Cost saving and efficiency programs in 2009 provided substantial progress toward our goal of $1 billion in annual cost savings by the end of 2011. We now expect to exceed $1 billion in savings over this three-year period.

Facts: General Motors (GM) recalled about 3 million worldwide of their small cars due to faulty ignition switches, which shuts off the engine while driving, thus preventing the airbags from inflating in case of an accident. General Motors paid compensation for 124 deaths, this fault had been know to GM for at least a decade prior to the recall being declared.

McCormick operates in two business segments: consumer and industrial. The consumer segment is to sell spices, herbs, extracts, seasoning blends, sauces, marinades and specialty foods to the consumer food market under a variety of brands worldwide; it is the primary driver of their business representing approximately 58% of sales, 80% of EBIT profits. The industrial segment sells seasoning blends,

|on the meats, bakery, and beverage categories. The company has presence in Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. Sara Lee is the|

During the same decade, General Mills ventured further, starting General Mills Specialty Retail Group. They

The bargaining power of buyers is relatively high. For a small firm like LMW, the business is probably dependent on a handful of large clients. The more concentrated the client base, the less attractive the industry is, because those clients will have considerable bargaining power. Additionally, buyers have relatively low switching costs, and can even take the function in-house (backward integration). There

General Mills is a brand that is known all around the world. They are the creators of fourteen different brands which include baking products such as Pillsbury, meals such as Betty Crocker, vegetables such as green giants, and yogurt such as Yoplait. As one can see, General Mills is one of the top companies that produce food in the U.S and in 70 other countries which include Australia, and Canada. They strive on their brands being known for the quality which goes back to 1880 when they first received the Gold Medal Flour award. Still to this day General Mills Gold Medal Flour has remained number 1 in selling their brand flour in the United States. Altogether General Mills has made an exceptional name for themselves and all of their products.

The company employs 200 individual in their manufacturing facility in Chicago which is their world headquarters. Included in the 200 are 12 employees in Shanghai, China responsible for sourcing, quality and engineering. The total revenue in 2015 was $42M.

“Our products are available in over 100 countries; sales in 2005 totalled $24 billion, with an operating profit of $6.5 billion; we spend over $14 million