General Mills Announces Actions to Support Future Growth Strategies

MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--General Mills (NYSE: GIS) today announced a productivity and cost savings plan designed to improve organizational effectiveness and focus on key growth strategies. The plan includes organizational changes that strengthen business alignment, and actions to accelerate administrative efficiencies across the company. In connection with this initiative, the company expects to eliminate approximately 850 positions globally. Plans also include asset-related costs of approximately $13 million pre-tax associated with the write-down of selected production equipment. The company will record total restructuring charges of approximately $109 million pre-tax, reflecting one-time employee separation expenses and the asset-related costs. Approximately $94 million of these restructuring costs will be recorded in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012, which ends on May 27, 2012. The remaining costs will be recorded in fiscal 2013.

Savings from these restructuring actions will be reinvested to support the company’s future growth strategies and to accelerate innovation across General Mills global business platforms.

General Mills continues to target fiscal 2012 adjusted diluted earnings per share of $2.53 to $2.55 per share. This guidance excludes the fourth quarter restructuring charge, mark-to-market valuation effects, and Yoplait integration costs.

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that are based on our current expectations and assumptions. These forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the potential results discussed in the forward-looking statements. In particular, our predictions about future net sales and earnings could be affected by a variety of factors, including: competitive dynamics in the consumer foods industry and the markets for our products, including new product introductions, advertising activities, pricing actions, and promotional activities of our competitors; economic conditions, including changes in inflation rates, interest rates, tax rates, or the availability of capital; product development and innovation; consumer acceptance of new products and product improvements; consumer reaction to pricing actions and changes in promotion levels; acquisitions or dispositions of businesses or assets; changes in capital structure; changes in laws and regulations, including labeling and advertising regulations; impairments in the carrying value of goodwill, other intangible assets, or other long-lived assets, or changes in the useful lives of other intangible assets; changes in accounting standards and the impact of significant accounting estimates; product quality and safety issues, including recalls and product liability; changes in consumer demand for our products; effectiveness of advertising, marketing, and promotional programs; changes in consumer behavior, trends, and preferences, including weight loss trends; consumer perception of health-related issues, including obesity; consolidation in the retail environment; changes in purchasing and inventory levels of significant customers; fluctuations in the cost and availability of supply chain resources, including raw materials, packaging, and energy; disruptions or inefficiencies in the supply chain; volatility in the market value of derivatives used to manage price risk for certain commodities; benefit plan expenses due to changes in plan asset values and discount rates used to determine plan liabilities; failure of our information technology systems; foreign economic conditions, including currency rate fluctuations; and political unrest in foreign markets and economic uncertainty due to terrorism or war. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly revise any forward-looking statement to reflect any future events or circumstances.