General Mills Inc, a Fortune 500 manufacturer of food products, beat expectations as it posted better earnings this year facilitated by its new products and tempered commodity costs.

Best known for popular food brands such as Cheerios cereal and Yoplait yogurt, the Minnesota-based company earned a net profit of $358.8 million ($1.07 per share) for the fourth quarter ending last May 31, higher than last year’s net profit of $182.5 million (53 cents per share).

Despite the recession, American consumers continue to buy General Mills’ cereal and baking products. U.S. net sales climbed 5% to $3.6 billion.

Like its peers in the food industry, General Mills also hiked up its prices in order to write down increasing commodity costs, but announced that price increases this fiscal year will be “moderate”.

As a result of the positive boost, General Mills’ premarket trading shares rose from 1.7% to $57. It also triggered a rise in shares for Kraft and Kellogg, whose shares on the NYSE surged to $47.66 and $26.74, respectively.

Surprising some analysts, company executives have declared an emphasis to aggressive product innovation. According to Chief Executive Ken Powell the number of consumers flocking to grocery stores have increased because more and more people are trying to find more innovative ideas that help cut costs. Powell believes that this is the right time to introduce new products that bank on innovation.

The company is well known for its diversified brand portfolio consisting of 100 leading U.S. brands. Brand names like Betty Crocker, Yoplait, Colombo, Totinos, Jeno’s, Pillsbury, Green Giant, Old El Paso, Häagen-Dazs, Cheerios, Lucky Charms and Wanchai Ferry are patronized all around the world.

In the U.S., on the average, shoppers put at least one General Mills product into their shopping cart when they visit the grocery store.

For fiscal year 2010, General Mills predicts single-digit growth percentage for its U.S unit while its international units are forecasted to post mid-single-digit growth, “below” 2009 levels.

Post Author: guest

This entry was posted on Friday, October 9th, 2009 at 6:00 am and is filed under Corporate News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.