General Mills to Axe up to 600 Jobs

07 Dec 2016 --- General Mills, the maker of Yoplait and Old El Paso, is axing as many as 600 jobs as part of a restructure in a bid to adapt its business to changing consumer tastes. The US packaged goods giant said between 400 and 600 jobs would go globally, as part of the reorganization which will see the role of international chief operating officer become defunct.
The new structure will see General Mills split into four business groups: North America Retail, Europe & Australia, Asia & Latin America, and convenience stores & foodservice.

Each of the business groups will report into Jeff Harmening, chief operating officer, who is said to be being lined up to be the next chief executive.

Harmening has now taken on global responsibilities and reports directly into chief executive Ken Powell.

General Mills did not specify in what areas the job cuts would impact but said they would be global.

As part of the change, the company’s French dairy unit, which makes Yoplait and Häagen-Dazs ice-cream and where General Mills is number two in the world, will work independently and report direct to Harmening.

“We continue to prioritize both growth and returns,” said Harmening. “The structural changes announced today will help us unlock global growth opportunities and go after them by efficiently restructuring our teams and processes. In addition, the capability investments and savings generated by these changes will help us deliver our fiscal 2018.”

“As we wrap up our 150th anniversary year, we are ready to take the next step in our journey to truly operate as a global company and fully resource our best ideas to drive growth,” said Powell.

The jobs cuts follow a previous round of job cuts revealed in June this year, as General Mills looks to adapt its business to consumers demanding healthier products.

In July, it said it was shedding around 1,400 jobs amid falling demand for its Progresso soup. Since 2014, General Mills is thought to have cut more than 10 percent of its workforce. 

However, it is not alone and rival businesses have been forced to cut jobs amid similar challenges.

In September, General Mills' troubled US yogurt business dented its quarterly sales, which fell seven percent year-on-year to $3.9bn, as the US packaged goods giant lost customers to rival organic yogurt providers. 

As part of the latest changes, General Mills said it will be bolstering its “growth capabilities in several areas including strategic revenue management (SRM), e-commerce, and marketing innovation.”