General Mills

General Mills, Inc.

Type

Public (NYSE: GIS)

Founded 1866

Headquarters HQ in Golden Valley, Minnesota; manufacturing facilities around the world

Key people Steve Sanger, Chairman and CEO

Ken Powell, Vice Chairman

Industry

Food processing

Products

Baking mixes, Breakfast cereals, yogurt, refrigerated dough, soup, pizza, snack foods, ice cream, soy products, vegetables, flour, and more...

Revenue

$12.442 billion USD (2007)

Slogan

The Company of Champions

Website

www.generalmills.com

The Company

General Mills markets several well-known brands, including Betty Crocker, HÐ'agen-Dazs, Pillsbury, Green Giant, Old El Paso and Cheerios. Their brand portfolio includes more than 100 leading U.S. brands and numerous category leaders around the world. On average, U.S. shoppers place at least one General Mills product into their shopping cart each time they visit the grocery store. [1]

General Mills markets global brands such as Green Giant vegetables, Old El Paso Mexican food and HÐ'agen-Dazs ice cream. Their U.S. portfolio includes Yoplait yogurt, Cheerios, Wheaties and other Big G cereals.

The company can trace its history to the Minneapolis Milling Company, an organization founded in 1866 by Cadwallader C. Washburn which leased power rights to mills operating along Saint Anthony Falls on the Mississippi River. His brother William D. Washburn also assisted in the company's development. In 1866, the Washburns got into the business themselves, building the Washburn "B" Mill at the falls. At the time, the building was considered to be so large and output so vast that it could not possibly sustain itself. However, the company succeeded and in 1874 he built the even bigger Washburn "A" Mill.

In 1877, the mill entered a partnership with John Crosby to form the Washburn-Crosby Company. A year later, the "A" mill exploded, killing 17 workers and also demolishing several nearby buildings. The mill was rebuilt and continued to operate for almost 90 years.

In the 1920s, the company stepped in to take over a failing Twin Cities radio station, renaming it WCCO (from Washburn Crosby Company). General Mills itself was created in 1928 when Washburn-Crosby President James Ford Bell directed his company to merge with 26 other mills.

In 1970, General Mills acquired a five-unit restaurant company called Red Lobster and expanded it nationwide. Soon, a division of General Mills titled General Mills Restaurants developed to take charge of the Red Lobster chain. In 1982, General Mills Restaurants founded a new Italian themed restaurant chain called Olive Garden. Another themed restaurant, China Coast, was added before the entire group was spun-off to General Mills shareholders in 1995 as Darden Restaurants.

Beginning in 1929, General Mills products contained boxtop coupons, known as Betty Crocker coupons, with varying point values, that were redeemable for discounts on a variety of housewares products featured in the widely distributed Betty Crocker catalog. The coupons and the catalog were discontinued by the company in 2006, and a new web-site based retail concept is scheduled to open in 2007.

From 1976 to 1985 General Mills went to court as the parent company of Parker Brothers, which held the rights on the brand name and gaming idea of the board game Monopoly, claiming that the so called Anti-Monopoly game of an economics professor infringed their trademark. The dispute extended up to the U.S. Supreme Court which ruled against them, sayng that while they have exclusive rights to the game Monopoly, they can not prevent others from using the word monopoly in the name of a game. During the 1980s, General Mills sold Parker Brothers to Kenner.

In 2001, the company purchased Pillsbury, although it was officially described as a "merger." In late 2004, the company transitioned its entire breakfast cereal line to whole grain due to scientific research showing the positive impact consuming whole grains has on individuals' health

Current members of the board of directors of General Mills are: Paul Danos, William Esrey, Raymond Gilmartin, Judith Hope, Heidi Miller, Hilda Ochoa-Brillembourg, Steve Odland, Michael Rose, Robert Ryan, Stephen Sanger (chairman), Michael Spence, and Dorothy Terrell.

Marketing

On August 2004, Millsberry, an advergame, was created as a marketing tool. It has shops, homes, special events, arcades, and a newspaper called the Millsberry Gazette, which tells you happenings in Millsberry; and new features are frequently added.[1] General Mills often uses product placement on Millsberry. It's a web site targeted at elementary and middle school students,[2] though it can be played by everyone. Sign up is required to be able to fully access it.

List of General Mills brands

Breakfast cereals

* Apple Cinnamon Cheerios

* Basic 4

* Boo Berry

* Buc-Wheats

* Cheerios

* Chex

* Cinnamon Toast Crunch

* Cocoa Puffs

* Cookie Crisp

* Count Chocula

* Crazy Cow

* Fiber One

Postcard image of the Gold Medal Flour factory in Minneapolis around 1900.

* Franken Berry

* French Toast Crunch

* Frosted Cheerios

* Fruity Cheerios

* Golden Grahams

* Honey Nut Cheerios

* Jurassic Park Crunch

* General Mills Kaboom

* Kix