Strategic Audit Project
Paper 1
Team 19
Introduction
General Mills is an enormous, diverse, and extremely successful company. Their origins date back to 1856 when the Minneapolis Milling Company entered into the milling industry. Fast forward 105 years to 1965 and the company, now known as General Mills, is making things such as Play-Doh, Monopoly, even Easy Bake Ovens. Despite its diverse history, today, General Mills is focused on food, with their mission simply to "make lives healthier, easier and richer."
General Mills is separated into three main parts, U.S. Retail, International, and Bakeries & Food Service. General Mills is the third largest food consumer products manufacturer in the United States. Big G Cereal, Yoplait, and Pillsbury are some of their largest U.S. Retail brands, but they are also known for Betty Crocker, Green Giant, Nature Valley, and dozens of other brands. Internationally, General Mills provides products such as Haagen-Dazs, Yoki, Wanchai Ferry, and many of their U.S.
English: Washburn Crosby Company postcard from aro...
Advertisement, late 1880s
Washburn "A" Mill, the producer of Gold Medal Flou...brands. 43% of their international sales came from Europe, followed by Asia (24%), Canada (23%), and Latin America (10%) ("Annual Report 2012"). Bakery & Food Service provides products to hotels, restaurants, vending machines, cafeterias, and grocery bakeries.
The food industry is extremely large. Each year the U.S. spends over $1 trillion on food. The food industry can be separated into many areas such as regulation, agriculture, research, manufacturing, food processing, and marketing. General Mills is involved in many aspects of this industry, most heavily in food processing. The food consumer product industry is extremely competitive. General Mills must constantly assess its internal operations as well as the industry and their competitors in order to thrive.
External Analysis In the context of the general environment, economic factors are causing the most dynamic changes within the food manufacturing sector, something that General Mills is...