USA: General Mills focusing on investment in yoghurt sector

Noting that growth in the Greek yoghurt sector is slowing, General Mills, Inc has announced plans to focus on building its Yoplait business.

According to Food Business News, with what is said to be the right product portfolio, distribution and manufacturing capacity in place, the company is investing heavily in the marketing and merchandising of its US yoghurt products. However, those investments, along with higher dairy input costs and competitive pricing actions affected profitability during the company’s third quarter. Additionally, it was said that retail sales for the segment declined, due in part to bad weather.

Ken Powell, chairman and chief executive officer for General Mills spoke of the investment by saying: “During this period, we really put our foot down on the pedal with incremental investments business and we are already seeing the benefits.”

In January, the company introduced 16 products, double the number launched in the previous year, along with introductory trade funds to generate feature and display of the new items. General Mills also launched a Greek yoghurt taste-off campaign, which included in-store sampling and a pop-up store in New York City where consumers were able to taste Yoplait Greek products.

Source: Food Business News