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Case
| HBS Case Collection
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2008
(Revised from original 2007 version)
General Mills (A)
by
Raymond V. Gilmartin, Marco Iansiti and Bianca Buccitelli
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Abstract
General Mills is an 80-year-old company that specializes in consumer foods such as cereal, snacks, baking, and dinner products. Although General Mills is, on the whole, a very successful company, they have, in the recent past, had to face challenges as a result the changing environment in the food manufacturing industry. Three main factors have affected this industry including: (1) the rise of Wal-Mart and the resulting shift of pricing power from the manufacturer to the retailer, (2) the infiltration of more private-label products into the market, and (3) the rise in commodity costs as a result of inflation (for example, the Producer Price Index (PPI) which tracks the inflation/deflation for raw materials used by food manufacturers increased by 5.9% from April 2003 to April 2004).
Keywords: Competitive Strategy;
Change Management;
Cost Management;
Problems and Challenges;
Inflation and Deflation;
Price;
Consumer Products Industry;
Manufacturing Industry;
Citation:
Gilmartin, Raymond V., Marco Iansiti, and Bianca Buccitelli. "General Mills (A)." Harvard Business School Case 608-004, July 2008. (Revised from original December 2007 version.)