{"url_path":"/sec/gis/10-k/2026/item-1","section_key":"item-1","section_title":"Item 1 Business","topic":"sec","document":{"doc_type":"10-K","doc_date":"2026-07-01","source_url":"https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/40704/0001628280-26-046466-index.html","accession_number":"0001628280-26-046466","cik":"0000040704","ticker":"GIS","issuer_name":"GENERAL MILLS INC","edgar_url":"https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/40704/0001628280-26-046466-index.html","primary_entity_key":"0000040704","primary_entity_name":"GENERAL MILLS INC"},"word_count":3340,"has_tables":true,"body_markdown":"ITEM 1 - Business\n\nCOMPANY OVERVIEW\n\nFor 160 years, General Mills has been making food the world loves. We are a leading global manufacturer and marketer of branded\n\nconsumer foods with more than 100 brands in 100 countries across six continents. In addition to our consolidated operations, we have\n\n50 percent interests in two strategic joint ventures that manufacture and market food products sold in approximately 120 countries\n\nworldwide.\n\nWe manage and review the financial results of our business under four operating segments: North America Retail; International; North\n\nAmerica Pet; and North America Foodservice. See Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of\n\nOperations (MD&A) in Item 7 of this report for a description of our segments.\n\nWe offer a variety of human and pet food products that provide great taste, nutrition, convenience, and value for consumers around the\n\nworld. Our business is focused on the following large, global categories:\n\n•snacks, including grain, fruit and savory snacks, nutrition bars, and frozen hot snacks;\n\n•ready-to-eat cereal;\n\n•convenient meals, including meal kits, ethnic meals, pizza, soup, side dish mixes, frozen breakfast, and frozen entrees;\n\n•wholesome natural pet food;\n\n•refrigerated and frozen dough;\n\n•baking mixes and ingredients; and\n\n•super-premium ice cream.\n\nOur Cereal Partners Worldwide (CPW) joint venture with Nestlé S.A. (Nestlé) competes in the ready-to-eat cereal category in markets\n\noutside North America, and our Häagen-Dazs Japan, Inc. (HDJ) joint venture competes in the super-premium ice cream category in\n\nJapan. For net sales contributed by each class of similar products, please see Note 17 to the Consolidated Financial Statements in Item\n\n8 of this report.\n\nThe terms “General Mills,” “Company,” “registrant,” “we,” “us,” and “our” mean General Mills, Inc. and all subsidiaries included in\n\nthe Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 of this report unless the context indicates otherwise.\n\nCertain terms used throughout this report are defined in a glossary in Item 8 of this report.\n\nCustomers\n\nOur primary customers are grocery stores, mass merchandisers, membership stores, natural food chains, drug, dollar and discount\n\nchains, e-commerce retailers, commercial and noncommercial foodservice distributors and operators, restaurants, convenience stores,\n\nand pet specialty stores. We generally sell to these customers through our direct sales force. We use broker and distribution\n\narrangements for certain products and to serve certain types of customers and certain markets. For further information on our customer\n\ncredit and product return practices, please refer to Note 2 to the Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 of this report. During\n\nfiscal 2026, Walmart Inc. and its affiliates (Walmart) accounted for 22 percent of our consolidated net sales and 31 percent of net sales\n\nof our North America Retail segment. No other customer accounted for 10 percent or more of our consolidated net sales. For further\n\ninformation on significant customers, please refer to Note 8 to the Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 of this report.\n\nCompetition\n\nThe human and pet food categories are highly competitive, with numerous manufacturers of varying sizes in the United States and\n\nthroughout the world. The categories in which we participate also are very competitive. Our principal competitors in these categories\n\nare manufacturers, as well as retailers with their own branded products. Competitors market and sell their products through brick-and-\n\nmortar stores and e-commerce. All our principal competitors have substantial financial, marketing, and other resources. Competition in\n\nour product categories is based on product innovation, product quality, price, brand recognition and loyalty, effectiveness of\n\nmarketing, promotional activity, convenient ordering and delivery to the consumer, and the ability to identify and satisfy consumer\n\npreferences. Our principal strategies for competing in each of our segments include unique consumer insights, effective customer\n\nrelationships, superior product quality, innovative advertising, product promotion, product innovation aligned with consumers’ needs,\n\nan efficient supply chain, and price. In most product categories, we compete not only with other widely advertised, branded products,\n\nbut also with regional brands and with generic and private label products that are generally sold at lower prices. Internationally, we\n\ncompete with both multi-national and local manufacturers, and each country includes a unique group of competitors.\n\n5\n\nRaw materials, ingredients, and packaging\n\nThe principal raw materials that we use are grains (wheat, oats, and corn), meat, vegetable oils, sugar, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and\n\nother agricultural products. We also use substantial quantities of carton board, corrugated, plastic, and metal packaging materials,\n\noperating supplies, and energy. Most of these inputs for our domestic and Canadian operations are purchased from suppliers in the\n\nUnited States. In our other international operations, inputs that are not locally available in adequate supply may be imported from\n\nother countries. The cost of these inputs may fluctuate widely due to external conditions such as weather, climate change, product\n\nscarcity, limited sources of supply, commodity market fluctuations, currency fluctuations, trade tariffs, pandemics, war, and changes\n\nin governmental agricultural and energy policies and regulations. We believe that we will be able to obtain an adequate supply of\n\nneeded inputs. Occasionally and where possible, we make advance purchases of items significant to our business to ensure continuity\n\nof operations. Our objective is to procure materials meeting both our quality standards and our production needs at price levels that\n\nallow a targeted profit margin. Since these inputs generally represent the largest variable cost in manufacturing our products, to the\n\nextent possible, we often manage the risk associated with adverse price movements for some inputs using a variety of risk\n\nmanagement strategies. We also have a grain merchandising operation that provides us efficient access to, and more informed\n\nknowledge of, various commodity markets, principally wheat and oats. This operation holds physical inventories that are carried at net\n\nrealizable value and uses derivatives to manage its net inventory position and minimize its market exposures.\n\nTRADEMARKS AND PATENTS\n\nOur products are marketed under a variety of valuable trademarks. Some of the more important trademarks used in our global\n\noperations (set forth in italics in this report) include Annie’s, Betty Crocker, Bisquick, Blue Buffalo, Bugles, Cascadian Farm,\n\nCheerios, Chex, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cocoa Puffs, Cookie Crisp, Dunkaroos, Edgard & Cooper, Fiber One, Fruit by the Foot,\n\nFruit Gushers, Fruit Roll-Ups, Gardetto’s, Gold Medal, Golden Grahams, Häagen-Dazs, Kitano, Kix, Lärabar, Latina, Lucky\n\nCharms, Nature Valley, Nudges, Oatmeal Crisp, Old El Paso, Pillsbury, Progresso, Tastefuls, Tiki Pets, Total, Totino’s, Trix, True\n\nSolutions, Wanchai Ferry, Wheaties, Wilderness, and Yoki. We protect these trademarks as appropriate through registrations in the\n\nUnited States and other jurisdictions. Depending on the jurisdiction, trademarks are generally valid as long as they are in use or their\n\nregistrations are properly maintained and they have not been found to have become generic. Registrations of trademarks can also\n\ngenerally be renewed indefinitely for as long as the trademarks are in use.\n\nSome of our products are marketed under or in combination with trademarks that have been licensed from others for both long-\n\nstanding products (e.g., Reese’s Puffs for cereal and Green Giant for vegetables in certain countries), and shorter term promotional\n\nproducts (e.g., cereal, fruit snacks, and baking mixes sold in combination with various third-party equities).\n\nOur cereal trademarks are licensed to CPW and may be used in association with the Nestlé trademark. Nestlé licenses certain of its\n\ntrademarks to CPW, including the Nestlé and Uncle Toby’s trademarks. The Häagen-Dazs trademark is licensed royalty-free and\n\nexclusively to Nestlé and authorized sublicensees for ice cream and other frozen dessert products in the United States and Canada. \n\nThe Häagen-Dazs trademark is also licensed to HDJ in Japan. The Pillsbury brand and the Pillsbury Doughboy character are subject\n\nto an exclusive, royalty-free license that was granted to a third party and its successors in the shelf-stable baking categories in the\n\nUnited States and under limited circumstances in Canada and Mexico.\n\nWe continue our focus on developing and marketing innovative, proprietary products, many of which use proprietary expertise,\n\nrecipes and formulations, and are patent protected. We consider the collective rights under our various patents, which expire from time\n\nto time, to be a valuable asset, but we do not believe that our businesses are materially dependent upon any single patent or group of\n\nrelated patents.\n\nSEASONALITY\n\nIn general, demand for our products is evenly balanced throughout the year. However, within our North America Retail segment\n\ndemand for refrigerated dough, frozen baked goods, and baking products is stronger in the fourth calendar quarter. Demand for\n\nProgresso soup is higher during the fall and winter months. Within our International segment, demand for Häagen-Dazs ice cream is\n\nhigher during the summer months and demand for baking mix increases during winter months. Due to the offsetting impact of these\n\ndemand trends, as well as the different seasons in the northern and southern hemispheres, our International segment’s net sales are\n\ngenerally evenly balanced throughout the year.\n\nQUALITY AND SAFETY REGULATION\n\nThe manufacture and sale of human and pet food products is highly regulated. In the United States, our activities are subject to\n\nregulation by various federal government agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, Department of Agriculture, Federal\n\nTrade Commission, Department of Commerce, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and Environmental Protection\n\nAgency, as well as various federal, state, and local agencies relating to the production, packaging, labelling, marketing, storage,\n\ndistribution, quality, and safety of food and pet products and the health and safety of our employees. Our business is also regulated by\n\nsimilar agencies outside of the United States.\n\n6\n\nENVIRONMENTAL MATTERS\n\nAs of May 31, 2026, we were involved with two response actions associated with the alleged or threatened release of hazardous\n\nsubstances or wastes located in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Moonachie, New Jersey.\n\nOur operations are subject to the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Comprehensive\n\nEnvironmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, and all\n\nsimilar state, local, and foreign environmental laws and regulations applicable to the jurisdictions in which we operate.\n\nBased on current facts and circumstances, we believe that neither the results of our environmental proceedings nor our compliance in\n\ngeneral with environmental laws or regulations will have a material adverse effect upon our capital expenditures, earnings, or\n\ncompetitive position.\n\nHUMAN CAPITAL MANAGEMENT\n\nRecruiting, developing, engaging, and protecting our workforce is critical to executing our strategy and achieving business success. As\n\nof May 31, 2026, we had approximately 30,000 employees around the globe, with approximately 15,000 in the U.S. and\n\napproximately 15,000 located in our markets outside of the U.S. Our workforce is divided between approximately 12,000 employees\n\ndedicated to the production of our products and approximately 18,000 non-production employees.\n\nThe efficient production of high-quality products and successful execution of our strategy requires a talented, skilled, and engaged\n\nteam of employees. We work to equip our employees with critical skills and expand their contributions over time by providing a range\n\nof training and career development opportunities, including hands-on experiences via challenging work assignments and job rotations,\n\ncoaching and mentoring opportunities, and training programs. To foster employee engagement and commitment, we follow a robust\n\nprocess to listen to employees, take action, and measure our progress with on-going employee conversations, transparent\n\ncommunications, and employee engagement surveys.\n\nWe believe that fostering a culture of belonging is the right thing to do for our employees and business. It strengthens our ability to\n\nrecruit talent and provides all of our employees with an environment where they have an opportunity to thrive and succeed. Champion\n\nBelonging – a Company value – helps bring to life our culture of belonging through respecting and including all voices, ideas, and\n\nperspectives. We embed our culture of belonging into our day-to-day ways of working through a number of programs to foster\n\ndiscussion, build empathy, and increase understanding.\n\nWe are committed to maintaining a safe and secure workplace for our employees. We set specific safety standards to identify and\n\nmanage critical risks. We use global safety management systems and employee training to ensure consistent implementation of safety\n\nprotocols and accurate measurement and tracking of incidents. To provide a safe and secure working environment for our employees,\n\nwe prohibit workplace discrimination, and we do not tolerate abusive conduct or harassment. Our attention to the health and safety of\n\nour workforce extends to the workers and communities in our supply chain. We believe that respect for human rights is fundamental to\n\nour strategy and to our commitment to ethical business conduct.\n\nINFORMATION ABOUT OUR EXECUTIVE OFFICERS\n\nThe section below provides information regarding our executive officers as of July 1, 2026.\n\nKofi A. Bruce, age 56, is Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Bruce joined General Mills in 2009 as Vice President, Treasurer after serving in\n\na variety of senior management positions with Ecolab and Ford Motor Company. He served as Treasurer until 2010 when he was\n\nnamed Vice President, Finance for Yoplait. Mr. Bruce reassumed his role as Vice President, Treasurer from 2012 until 2014 when he\n\nwas named Vice President, Finance for Convenience Stores & Foodservice. He was named Vice President, Controller in 2017, Vice\n\nPresident, Financial Operations in 2019, and to his present position in 2020.\n\nRicardo Fernandez, age 53, is Segment President, International. Mr. Fernandez joined General Mills in 2000 as an Associate\n\nMarketing Manager and held various marketing roles of increasing responsibility until being named Vice President, Marketing, Frozen\n\nFrontier in 2012, Vice President, CPW Marketing in 2014, President, Latin America in 2016, and President, Morning Foods in 2020.\n\nHe was named to his present position in December 2023.\n\nJeffrey L. Harmening, age 59, is Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Harmening joined General Mills in 1994\n\nand served in various marketing roles in the Betty Crocker, Yoplait, and Big G cereal divisions. He was named Vice President,\n\nMarketing for CPW in 2003 and Vice President of the Big G cereal division in 2007. In 2011, he was promoted to Senior Vice\n\nPresident for the Big G cereal division. Mr. Harmening was appointed Senior Vice President, Chief Executive Officer of CPW in\n\n2012. Mr. Harmening returned from CPW in 2014 and was named Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, U.S. Retail. He\n\nbecame President, Chief Operating Officer in 2016. He was named Chief Executive Officer in 2017 and Chairman of the Board in\n\n2018. Mr. Harmening is a director of The Toro Company.\n\n7\n\nElizabeth A. Mascolo, age 51, is Segment President, North America Pet. Ms. Mascolo joined General Mills in 2002 and held various\n\nmarketing roles in Cereals, Meals, and Snacks before serving as Global Marketing Director for CPW from 2014 through 2017. Ms.\n\nMascolo was named Business Unit Director for Cheerios & Strategic Revenue Management in 2017; Vice President, Business Unit\n\nDirector, Pillsbury, in 2020; and President, North America Blue Buffalo in February 2023. She was named to her present position in\n\nMarch 2025.\n\nDana M. McNabb, age 50, is Chief Operating Officer and a director of General Mills. Ms. McNabb joined General Mills in 1999 and\n\nheld a variety of marketing roles in Cereal, Snacks, Meals, and New Products before becoming Vice President, Marketing for CPW in\n\n2011 and Vice President, Marketing for the Circle of Champions Business Unit in 2015. She became President, U.S. Cereal Operating\n\nUnit in 2016, Group President, Europe & Australia in 2020, Chief Strategy & Growth Officer in July 2021, Group President, North\n\nAmerica Retail in January 2024, Group President, North America Retail and North America Pet in June 2025, and was named to her\n\npresent position in June 2026.\n\nJaime Montemayor, age 62, is Chief Digital, Technology and Transformation Officer. He spent 21 years at PepsiCo, Inc., serving in\n\nroles of increasing responsibility, including most recently as Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer of PepsiCo’s\n\nAmericas Foods segment from 2013 to 2015, and Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Digital Innovation, Data and\n\nAnalytics, PepsiCo from 2015 to 2016. Mr. Montemayor served as Chief Technology Officer of 7-Eleven Inc. in 2017. He assumed\n\nthe role of our Chief Digital and Technology Officer in 2020 after founding and operating a digital technology consulting company\n\nfrom 2017 until 2020. He was named to his present position in March 2026.\n\nJonathan Ness, age 50, is Chief Supply Chain Officer. Mr. Ness joined General Mills in 2007 and has held various roles of increasing\n\nresponsibility in Global Finance, Supply Chain Strategy, and Transformation. He was named Finance Director in 2016, Senior Finance\n\nDirector, Global Supply Chain in March 2022, and Vice President, Global Supply Chain Finance & Strategy in June 2023. He was\n\nnamed to his present position in March 2026.\n\nMark A. Pallot, age 53, is Vice President, Chief Accounting Officer. Mr. Pallot joined General Mills in 2007 and served as Director,\n\nFinancial Reporting until 2017, when he was named Vice President, Assistant Controller. He was elected to his present position in\n\n2020. Prior to joining General Mills, Mr. Pallot held accounting and financial reporting positions at Residential Capital, LLC, Metris,\n\nInc., CIT Group Inc., and Ernst & Young, LLP.\n\nAsheesh Saksena, age 62, is Chief Strategy and Growth Officer. Mr. Saksena joined General Mills in August 2024. Prior to joining\n\nGeneral Mills, Mr. Saksena served as Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy Officer at Cox Communications, a wholly owned\n\nsubsidiary of Cox Enterprises, Inc., from 2011 to 2016; Chief Strategic Growth Officer at Best Buy Co., Inc. from 2016 to 2018;\n\nPresident, Best Buy Health, Best Buy Co., Inc. from 2018 to 2020; Senior Advisor to the Chief Executive Officer of Best Buy Co.,\n\nInc. in 2020; and Chief Growth Officer at Gap Inc. from January 2021 to March 2023.\n\nLanette Shaffer Werner, age 55, is Chief Innovation, Technology and Quality Officer. Ms. Shaffer Werner joined General Mills in\n\n1995 and held various R&D roles in Frozen Desserts, Pillsbury, and Baking before serving as Director of One Global Dairy and Sr.\n\nDirector for One Global Cereal. In July 2021, Ms. Shaffer Werner was named as Vice President, Innovation, Technology and Quality,\n\nU.S. Meals & Baking Solutions. She was named to her present position in June 2023.\n\nPankaj Sharma, age 53, is Segment President, North America Foodservice. Mr. Sharma joined General Mills in 2014 and served as a\n\nMarketing Director until 2017, when he was named Vice President, Marketing, Europe & Australia. He was promoted to President,\n\nU.S. Yogurt in 2018 and President, U.S. Meals & Baking Solutions in 2019. He was named to his present position in February 2024.\n\nJacqueline Williams-Roll, age 57, is Chief Human Resources Officer. In this capacity, she also has responsibility for Corporate\n\nCommunications and Community Impact. Ms. Williams-Roll joined General Mills in 1995. She held human resources leadership roles\n\nin Supply Chain, Finance, Marketing, and Organization Effectiveness and worked a large part of her career on businesses outside of\n\nthe United States. She was named Vice President, Human Resources, International in 2010, and then promoted to Senior Vice\n\nPresident, Human Resources Operations in 2013. She was named to her present position in 2014. Prior to joining General Mills, she\n\nheld sales and management roles with Jenny Craig International.\n\nKaren Wilson Thissen, age 59, is General Counsel and Secretary. Ms. Wilson Thissen joined General Mills in June 2022. Prior to\n\njoining General Mills, she was a partner at the law firm of Faegre Drinker (formerly Faegre & Benson LLP), and then spent 17 years\n\nat Ameriprise Financial, Inc., serving in roles of increasing responsibility, including Executive Vice President and Deputy General\n\nCounsel from 2014 to 2017, and most recently as Executive Vice President and General Counsel from 2017 to June 2022.\n\nWEBSITE ACCESS\n\nOur website is https://www.generalmills.com. We make available, free of charge in the “Investors” portion of this website, annual\n\nreports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports filed or\n\nfurnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (1934 Act) as soon as reasonably practicable after\n\n8\n\nwe electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). All such filings are\n\navailable on the SEC’s website at https://www.sec.gov. Reports of beneficial ownership filed pursuant to Section 16(a) of the 1934\n\nAct are also available on our website."}