The Checkout: General Mills Talks ‘Reshaping’ in Earnings Call; SnackMagic Launches New Data Initiative

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General Mills Reports Q4, Full-Year 2021 Fiscal Results

General Mills this week reported its fiscal fourth quarter and full-year earnings results, while also commenting on company restructuring efforts which will include layoffs across the company and a new Strategy & Growth organization.

Minnesota’s Star Tribune reported earlier this month that General Mills will cut 700 to 800 jobs in the U.S. and Canada, along with 500 to 600 international positions, as the company refocuses its priorities and prepares for slower growth in the post-pandemic world. While not specifically mentioning the layoffs during the earnings call, chairman and CEO Jeff Harmening said that General Mills has undergone recent efforts to “reshape” the company, making changes in order to “simplify and streamline parts of our structure.” Harmening noted these moves are not “simply a cost-cutting exercise” and will allow the company to focus on priority areas like digital, data and analytics, ecommerce and M&A.

“It’s allowing us to free up resources to continue to invest in growth-facing capabilities,” he said. “Overall, we expect these changes to our portfolio and organization will result in stronger, more profitable growth, enabling us to better deliver on the goals of our Accelerate strategy.”

These restructuring efforts also include a new Strategy & Growth division which will be responsible for M&A, strategy, consumer insights, brand experiences, strategic revenue management and its 301 Inc. investment arm, Harmening said. The new organization will allow the company to centralize some of its capabilities to “develop scale and expertise” without taking operating responsibility out of businesses, Harmening said.

“We’re kind of beefing up our strategy function as well as M&A as we look to the future and certainly what we need to do to hit our sustainable top-line growth targets is we need to keep competing effectively, but we also need to do more portfolio shaping,” he said. “And so in that sense, we have an always-on strategy group that is maybe different than what we have done in the recent past.”

General Mills reported net sales were down 10% for the fourth quarter following the shopping surge at the onset of the pandemic during last year’s “unprecedented” fourth quarter, while sales for the full year were up 3%. North America Retail net sales were down 13% for the quarter, but up 4% for the year, with growth in meals & baking, cereal and yogurt.

The company “will exit the pandemic a stronger company than we entered it,” said Harmening, particularly as the company achieved goals to grow net sales in its core markets and in categories such as snack bars, ice cream and U.S. cereal. The company grew its strategic capabilities in digital, data and analytics and ecommerce during the fiscal year, with ecommerce now accounting for 11% of its worldwide sales. He added that the company anticipates that consumer shopping behaviors will not return to how they were pre-pandemic as a result of the rise in ecommerce shopping and the likelihood that consumers will continue some degree of remote work even post-pandemic. He noted this will have “lasting impacts” and “create opportunity” for General Mills.

“Simply put, we are ending one period of significant consumer disruption only to start another,” Harmening said.

Simply Good Foods Reports Fiscal Q3 Results

The Simply Good Foods Company this week reported results from its fiscal third quarter, reporting a 32% net sales increase to $284 million driven by Atkins and Quest.

President and CEO Joseph E. Scalzo attributed the sales boost to returning shopper traffic in retail, contributing to a “resurgence” of bars — a category that took a hit during the pandemic — that was greater than the company’s expectations. Confections from Atkins and cookies and chips from Quest also gained momentum during the quarter, which the company expects to continue due to continued increased consumer mobility and trend-forward innovations in the pipeline for both brands.

“There is a high correlation of mobility to the consumption of our brands,” he said. “As shopper traffic within brick and mortar retailers, particularly in the mass and convenience store channels improved, our business, particularly bars, improved as well.”

Scalzo said the company notified customers this week of a price increase across both brands set to take effect in September as the company looks to compensate for higher raw material and distribution costs.

SnackMagic Launches New Snack Drop Data Initiative

Build-your-own snack box platform SnackMagic this week launched Snack Drop, a product discovery data initiative that allows the company and its brand partners to receive feedback from consumers. Through Snack Drop, consumers can sign up for limited quantities of “snack stashes,” $60 worth of food and beverage products offered to consumers for $15, in exchange for their feedback on factors such as product packaging and flavor. The results and feedback is then shared with brands so they can improve products, and also informs which products SnackMagic will carry on its rotating product offerings, the company said.

“Discovery and distribution are some of the most challenging aspects of building any business, and especially for food and beverage brands,” SnackMagic founder and CEO Shaunak Amin said. “Now with Snack Drop, we’re effectively creating the most efficient brand-side focus group ever.”

The latest initiative builds on the company’s data sharing efforts, which includes allowing brand partners access to a portal to track data about sales, demographics they’re reaching and what consumers are pairing their products with in the snack boxes. Amin told NOSH earlier this year that this data has helped brands “make better decisions for their business,” including building out retail strategies.

The Single Origin Food Company Raises $1.1M

Sustainable plant-based food maker The Single Origin Food Co (Sofco) announced this week that it has secured $1.1 million in seed funding led by Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm A’Z Angels.

Founded in 2015, the company works collaboratively with farming partners to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase biodiversity and remove animals from the food chain, CEO Belal Elbana said in a press release. Sofco’s rice, salt and sugars are currently sold at 3,500 retailers nationwide.

The new capital will support the distribution expansion of the company’s latest product, Vegan Un-Honey, which launched nationwide exclusively in Sprouts in March and is now rolling out to Whole Foods, Natural Grocers and Safeway Albertsons stores. The product is currently offered in three varieties: Blonde (coconut nectar), Amber (cane nectar) and Copper (date nectar). The funding will also be used for further innovations in this line, with plans for sugar-free and maple-flavored Un-Honey products as well as plant-based products utilizing organic flower pollen, according to the company.

“Our focus is investing in disruptive innovation,” Amr Abdelaziz, Managing Partner at A’Z Angels, said in a press release. “Our portfolio is primarily technology companies. However, Sofco and Vegan Un-Honey are poised to disrupt the food industry with innovation at the heart of everything they do. We are a strong believer in sustainability which is a key driver of innovation.”