General Mills Continues Earnings Growth, Wraps Up Expansion Project

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--General Mills Incorporated (NYSE:GIS) (Minneapolis, Minnesota) recently reported earnings for the third quarter of fiscal year 2010. Net earnings of $332.5 million were up 15.1% from the same period last year. The $1.32 billion in net earnings for the first nine months of fiscal year 2010 represented an increase of 39.4% from the previous year.

Sales increases were driven largely by sales of the company's Big G brand cereals, which grew 6% in the quarter. The brand includes such U.S. favorites as Cheerios, Wheaties, Lucky Charms and Chex cereals. "Retail sales for ready-to-eat cereals totaled nearly $10 billion in the latest 52 weeks across measured and non-measured channels. It's a high-penetration category with more than 90% of U.S. households buying cereal each year," said Jeff Harmening, president of Big G cereals. "Retail sales have increased between 2% and 4% annually in the last few years, and we expect that trend to continue. And because of its size, even modest growth in this category drives a significant increase in sales. Cereal-category sales have increased by over $1 billion over the last four years."

Net sales in General Mills' Pillsbury division rose 2% from 3Q09, led in part by sales of Totino's pizza. Totino's pizzas and pizza rolls are manufactured at General Mills' frozen food plant in Wellston, Ohio. The plant is the largest pizza plant in the world, producing 1.2 million pizzas and 17 million pizza rolls each day. Industrial Info is currently tracking major upgrades and expansion projects at the plant, which have a combined estimated total investment value of $77 million. Upgrades of approximately $5 million are occurring at the plant to increase production efficiency. In addition, 28,000 square feet of refrigerated warehouse space and 6,000 square feet of production area with new processing equipment is being installed at the plant. The upgrades and expansions are expected to be completed early in the third quarter of this year.

Information on these and other Food & Beverage Industry projects can be found in Industrial Info's North American Industrial Database.

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