General Mills reaffirmed its guidance for 2019 financial performance on Tuesday and promised faster innovation to keep pace with changing consumers.
The Golden Valley-based food maker delivered the opening presentation at the Consumer Analyst Group of New York's annual conference, a four-day meeting in Boca Raton, Fla., of large investors and executives from the biggest names in consumer goods.
Jeff Harmening, chief executive of General Mills, said the company will deliver on its mission of making food people love — and creating financial returns for its investors — by having a "relentless focus on the consumer … especially in the highly dynamic environment we find ourselves in today."
The event, known as CAGNY, brings together the major consumer-packaged goods companies, from Clorox to Conagra Brands and PepsiCo to Procter & Gamble. Each company has 50 minutes to outline its business strategy, vision, challenges and strengths for analysts and investors. But unlike a quarterly earnings update, the audience includes executives from its industry peers.
General Mills outlined its long-term view for the company's growth — which hinges on its ability to make new products consumers want to buy — while acknowledging its near-term challenges, like the rising cost of freight, balance-sheet adjustments to accommodate the acquisition of Blue Buffalo Pet Products and a fragmented media landscape that makes it harder to market foods en masse.
The food industry, facing the rise of small challenger brands, has been under pressure for many years. Its old model of making and selling foods no longer ensures strong future growth. The industry has been trying to reinvent itself to better match the modern realities.
More than two years ago, around the time Harmening became CEO, General Mills shifted from a focus on cost-cutting initiatives, including plant closures and a 12 percent reduction in its global workforce, to jump-starting sales growth.
To do that, the company has to generate great ideas, Harmening said. The bureaucracy of innovation at a large food maker often gets in the way, which is why the company is trying to implement its "consumer-first design" for getting new food products into the marketplace faster.