General Mills Reports Declines in Sales and Profit for its FY2025
After three up-and-down quarters, General Mills’ fourth quarter took a dip, sealing the company’s full-fiscal-year fate with sales and profit declines. But no red ink. The company’s North American retail segment, its biggest, has been the problem all year.
Full-company sales in the quarter ending May 25, which were released today (June 25), were $4.6 billion, a 3% decline from the prior year; organic net sales also were down 3%. Operating profit of $504 million was down 35%. Company officials had been warning of a difficult fourth quarter.
Results for the full year, FY2025, were $19.5 billion in sales, a 2% decline from the prior year. Organic net sales also were down 2%. Operating profit of $3.3 billion was down 4%.
“Our number one goal in fiscal 2026 is to restore volume-driven organic sales growth,” said Chairman & CEO Jeff Harmening. “To do that, we’ll invest further in consumer value, product news, innovation, and brand building, guided by our remarkable experience framework and highlighted by Blue Buffalo’s national launch into fresh pet food coming later in calendar 2025.”
North American retail (net sales down 10%) and North American foodservice (down 2%) created the disappointing fourth quarter. The company’s other two segments, pet food and international, enjoyed double-digit sales increases.
North American retail, which in FY2024 accounted for 63% of the company’s sales, was the only segment to lose sales for the full year, down 5%, while the other three segments eeked out low-single-digit gains. Within North American retail, fourth-quarter sales for the U.S. Snacks operating unit were down double digits, and U.S. Morning Foods and U.S. Meals & Baking Solutions declined mid-single digits.
“With a clear framework centered on remarkability and positive early returns from our Q4 investments, I’m confident our fiscal 2026 plans will put us on a path back to driving long-term growth in line with our shareholder return model,” Harmening added.
Back in May, General Mills announced a multi-year global transformation initiative designed to accelerate growth. It implied coming layoffs and divestitures. It focuses on streamlining end-to-end business processes and “identifying new ways of working that match today’s evolving business environment, using new tools, technologies and operating models to enable greater agility. By optimizing how work gets done, General Mills will be able to invest more resources in driving growth. The company expects the global transformation initiative and additional efficiency efforts to generate $100 million in incremental cost savings in fiscal 2026.”
General Mills’ full-year financial targets for fiscal 2026:
* Organic net sales are expected to range between down 1% and up 1%.
* Adjusted operating profit is expected to be down 10-15% in constant currency from the base of $3.4 billion reported in fiscal 2025.
* Adjusted diluted EPS is also expected to be down 10-15% in constant currency from the base of $4.21 earned in fiscal 2025.
While the sale of its Canadian yogurt business to Sodiall was included in the FY2025 results, the sale of the U.S. yogurt business (Yoplait) to Lactalis isn’t expected to close till the end of this month.
