General Mills revealed new products Tuesday that fell into two main categories — those relying on organic ingredients and those that are easy to eat on the run.
The Golden Valley-based foodmaker is adding more than 40 new products at grocery stores in the U.S. and around the world this summer, aiming to boost sales and market share in such core businesses as cereal, yogurt and snacks.
The company is aggressively expanding its Annie's Homegrown brand, an organic packaged foods business that General Mills bought in 2014. General Mills this spring reintroduced Annie's branded cereals — a product that had failed when the organic food company was much smaller and independent. It is also releasing five baking mixes for cookies, brownies and pancake and waffles, as well as Annie's refrigerated dough, including crescent rolls, cinnamon rolls, cookie dough and buttermilk biscuits.
Other expansions within existing Annie's product lines include two new soup varieties, chicken noodle and vegetable, to its current line of five flavors, and three new flavors of chewy granola bars.
General Mills is also rolling out several innovations within its yogurt, an area where the company has lost market share. It is introducing Yoplait Greek 2% Whips — a fattier version of its 100-calorie Greek whipped product. Consumers have become disenchanted with "fat free" products.
Similarly, General Mills' premium whole-milk yogurt line, Liberté, will be USDA-certified organic by the fall.
The company's big yogurt push meets its portability and convenience goal that many consumers desire in its new on-the-go "Yoplait Go Big" pouches, targeting teens. General Mills also is releasing two flavors of its popular Annie's whole milk yogurt in squeezable tube packaging.
Other convenience-driven innovations include Nature Valley Backpacker pouches with chewy oatmeal bites and truffle-like bites from Larabar, its gluten-free fruit-and-nut snack business that General Mills bought in 2008.
