General Mill Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

General Mill - Essay Example Besides that, the company has its joint ventures manufacturing and marketing products in over 130 countries in addition to republics globally. Its operations are categorized into three- Foodservice and baking, International- excludes their partnership with Japan and Cereal Partners Worldwide, CPW and U.S Retail- consisting of seven divisions of the branded retail products; its joint venture with CPW sees them selling ready-to-eat cereals. Overview Recently, the Company made an acquirement of a natural snacks food corporation known as Food Should Taste Good that is located within Needham Heights. Happening within the same year, 2012, "the Company acquired a 50% interest and a 51% interest in Yoplait Marques S.A.S and Yoplait S.A.S. respectively, and later on, during August, it obtained Yoki Alimentos SA" (Reuters, n.d). Following its mission ‘Nourishing Lives’, the Company has its healthy snacks brands such as Nature Valley bars and Yoplait dairy products still having a l arge consumer base worldwide. Most notable is its Gold Medal flour that, till today, has remained the number one selling flour in the United States. The Company also participates in philanthropic efforts through its General Mills Foundation, where "more than half a million dollars has been awarded to nonprofit organizations supporting local communities since 1954" (General Mills -foundation, n.d). Furthermore, it has remained consistent in paying dividends to its investors. Coming after the Kellog Company, General Mills is the number two cereals maker in America, in terms of size. General Mills employs an estimated 35,000 employees across its network in Asia Pacific, Europe, Canada, Latin America and South Africa, its manufacturing companies are situated in beyond 30 countries. Products The Company can be said to have had great success because of its consumer-relating brands on all its products. Other than the Gold Medal flour, its breakfast products fetch a considerable consumer ba se and they include "Cheerios, Lucky Charms, Chex, Wheaties and Trix" (General mills- cereals n.d). The lineup continues on with baking mixes under the name Betty Crocker, frozen bread called Pilsbury and yoghurt called Yoplait and Colombo, the Company also makes vegetables that are frozen and preserved named Green Giant, Progresso soups and Mexican seasonings. General Mills has a natural as well as organic products venture named Small Planet Foods that is responsible for marketing Cascadian Farm vegetables plus Muir Glen soups. In addition, it has a joint venture with 8th venture for marketing and selling soy-based products; where that company has a 50-50 partnership with Dupont. Operations Owing to the fact that General Mills’ has a diverse product range where each may have similar or different specifications, the company took up professional IT services from a Management Information Systems company to design a feature in their product specifications system. This feature wo uld make it possible to conduct mass changes and undo designs of the products. The designing entailed rigorous testing with employees from its U.S and abroad operations also participating. This helped the Company to save time and minimize errors and subsequently, maintain consistent levels of quality in their products, their packaging and delivery to various parts of the world; while at the same time adhering to strict regulations. The system has the added advantage of allowing the Company to make more than 10,000 modifications