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.
The company's summer product announcement is one of two it makes every year. It came a day ahead of General Mills "investor day," a meeting of executives with analysts and investors in New York. The company's stock is up more than 30 percent this year, one of the best performers on the New York Stock Exchange. Values have risen across the food sector, in part driven by investor speculation about consolidation but also because product makeovers are yielding corporate financial improvements.
As online marketing, food awareness and consumer choice has increased, the food giant is learning to adapt its research and development approach to become more nimble and responsive to consumers' changing tastes.
"In order to support the growth we've planned, we have moved toward a more entrepreneurial approach to new product development, which not only speeds innovation, but helps us put our consumers first," Peter Erickson, executive vice president of innovation, said in a statement.
He said the company has cut the development process in half, bringing products to market in less than 12 months rather than 24 months. To reduce time spent on products, General Mills has implemented what it calls "lemonade stands" where its product development teams set up tables at stores, fitness centers or farmers markets to test product ideas before ramping up mass production.
Kristen Leigh Painter • 612-673-4767
