General mills

Food Production

The history of the company can be traced back to the Minneapolis Milling Company , founded in 1856 by Illinois Congressman Robert Smith, who used mills that used the energy of St. Anthony's Mississippi Falls.

Cadwallader C. Washburn acquired the company shortly after its founding and hired his brother, William D. Washburn, to help develop the company. In 1866, the brothers built their own Washburn “B” Mill at waterfalls, and in 1874, another Washburn “A” Mill.

In 1877, a partnership was created with John Crosby ( born John Crosby ), the company was called the Washburn-Crosby Company. In the same year, Washburn sent William Hood Dunwoody to England to open a market for spring wheat ^[8] . Dunwoody's mission was successful and he became a passive partner. Dunwoody became a very wealthy man. He bequeathed his funds to the Minneapolis hospital at the Dunwoody Institute (today the Dunwoody College of Technology) and the Pennsylvania charity - Dunwoody Village.

In 1878, flour dust explosion occurred at mill “A”, 18 workers died in the fire that arose ^[9] , and five neighboring houses were destroyed. The construction of a new mill began immediately. She was not only safer, but also produced more flour. Old stones grinding grain were replaced with automatic steel rollers. These videos were used for the first time in the world.

Actually, General Mills was created in 1928, when the president of the company Washburn-Crosby added 26 more mills to his own.

In 1990, a joint venture was established with Nestlé , Cereal Partners ^[10] , which promotes breakfast cereals (including many General Mills brands in markets outside the United States and Canada under the Nestlé brand name.

In 2001, General Mills acquired Pillsbury , after which General Mills became known as the “sink” ( English merger ).

Since 2004, the company has been producing more products aimed at a growing number of health-oriented consumers. So, the company has completely replaced the line of breakfast cereals with whole grain products. General Mills also reduced cereal sugar for children ^{[11] [12]} . The amount of sugar in cereal for children was reduced to 11 grams per serving ^[13] .

Toys

For the first time, General Mills entered the toy market in 1965 by purchasing Rainbow Crafts , the manufacturer of Play-Doh plasticine. The acquisition was successful, under new management production costs were reduced, and revenue tripled.

From 1976 to 1985, General Mills participated in the lawsuit as the parent company Parker Brothers . The latter owned the rights to the brand and the idea of ​​the board game " Monopoly " and claimed that the so-called game "Anti-Monopoly" violates its rights as the copyright holder. The dispute reached the level of the US Supreme Court , which decided not in favor of General Mills, deciding that the rights do not extend to the use of the word "monopoly" in the names of other games.

In 1985, the toy division was spun off into a separate company, Kenner Parker Toys, Inc ^[14] .

Military products

The Second World War

• Granular grain raw materials for the distillation of ethyl compounds for further use as components for the manufacture of gunpowder smokeless varieties ; ^[15]
• Individual diets for military personnel (made at the Goldenwell Grocery Plant, in the suburbs of Minneapolis - Golden Valley ); ^[15]
• Lend-Lease Food Packaging (Buffalo Precision Mechanics Plant, Buffalo , NY ); ^[15]
• Protective coatings and cases for optical instruments and high-precision military equipment (Rochester Precision Mechanics Plant, Rochester , NY, as part of the company's distillation division, Distillation Products ); ^[15]
• Bags for filling with sand and use as a means of field fortification (Vallejo Pulp Mill, Vallejo , California ); ^[15]

• Airborne roll angle correctors, sights , torpedo weapon control systems and various devices for the operation and maintenance of these weapons (Minneapolis Naval Arms Plant, Minnesota , in the structure of the company's mechanical division, English Mechanical Division Naval Ordnance Plant ), for the first time months of the war, the factory staff grew by two thousand people, the first serial samples of finished products of precision mechanics arrived on board warships by October 1942. Later, the company's engineers introduced and a number of innovations and useful improvements in production technology of these weapons and their own manufactured military production samples. In addition, they developed a new type of torpedoes, called “ jitterbug ” by analogy with the popular dance of that time, in which the deviation was originally laid to the side of the target - the torpedo immediately after launch went away from the target ship, which was designed to lull his team’s vigilance, as if the threat had passed, but as it reached the estimated attack distance, which did not leave the team time to respond to the threat, the torpedo abruptly changed course in the direction of the target and drowned the enemy’s ship, while thorium its motion could be U-shaped or 8-shaped - for these achievements, the company repeatedly noted ( «E» Award - the award in the form of certificates of honor, awarded in World War II the teams and the management of leading production companies for the high-quality and timely fulfillment of their duties under government military contracts); ^[15]
• Programs for the combat use of warm-blooded animals and birds (experiments were carried out at special animal farms, nurseries and poultry farms owned by the company; among others, the Pigeon project on the use of carrier pigeons as a disposable means of guiding missiles and aerial bombs later became the most famous, less well-known similar training projects dogs to control anti-submarine torpedoes, etc.); ^[sixteen]
• Parachute mines ( parachute mines ) - were developed and tested on an experimental basis at test sites by dropping from a specially equipped for this purpose mining aircraft, putting on a combat platoon after landing, were not mass produced.

Cold war

• Development of self-propelled underwater ocean-based missile systems of bottom-based ( ocean bottom crawler , abbr. RUM ); ^[17]
• Nuclear warheads for various missile and bomb weapons, the most popular modifications are W25 and W34 ;
• Depth nuclear bombs and their warheads; ^[18]
• Integrated anti-submarine defense systems ( PLUR and depth charges ) for fleet ships; ^[nineteen]
• Homing systems for various high-precision guided weapons and space rocket technology . ^[20]

The structure of the company included the following units engaged in the production of optical-electronic equipment for military purposes:

• Magnaflux Corp., Chicago , Illinois (acquired November 2, 1959);
• Daven Company, Livingston , New Jersey (since June 13, 1960);
• Laible Manufacturing Co., Manchester , New Hampshire (since June 13, 1960).

Other business areas

In 1970, General Mills acquired a chain of five Red Lobster restaurants and expanded it to a national one. Soon, a division of the company, General Mills Restaurants, was established to manage the Red Lobster network. In 1980, they bought the California-based Good Earth health food chain ^{[21] [22]} .

In 1982, General Mills-Restaurants created a new chain of Italian restaurants called Olive Garden , then a chain of Chinese restaurants, China Coast, was created, but in 1995 General Mills separated the division into a separate company - Darden Restaurants - with a redistribution of shares.

In the same ten years, General Mills created the Mills Specialty Retail Group, which acquired two companies that sewed clothes - Talbots and Eddie Bauer . However, Talbots was soon sold to a Japanese company, and Bauer bought the Spiegel catalog.

Technical Achievements

• 1930 - General R. Mills engineer Thomas R. James created an apparatus for the production of air grains. The new technology was used in 1937 to create Kix flakes and in 1941 for Cheerioats flakes (today Cheerios).
• 1939 - Helmer Anderson, an engineer at the company, invented Anderson’s packaging machine. She allowed to seal the bags with flour with glue, instead of tying them with a rope.
• 1956 - General Mills invented the tear tape, which makes it easy to open the package.
• 1962 - NASA astronaut Scott Carpenter took solid space food aboard the Aurora 7 spacecraft. Pillsbury scientists have spent more than a year developing it. In addition to nutritional cubes, they invented a pie that does not crumble, and meat that does not need to be stored in the refrigerator.

Sponsorship

In 1941, General Mills sponsored the popular Lone Ranger radio show. Later, the show continued to exist on television. The company sponsored it until 1961.

Since 1959, General Mills sponsored the television series Rocky and His Friends , which in 1961 became the Bullwinkle Show. Until 1968, Rocky and Bullwinkle advertised General Mills products.

The company also sponsored the Wyatt Earp Life and Legend Western, an American Broadcasting Company (ABC) production, starring Hugh O'Brian .

In 2012, General Mills ranked 181 on the list of the largest US companies Fortune 500 ^[23] and was the third largest food producer in the United States ^[24] .

• Market cap = $ 29.9 billion (May 2013);
• Share capital - $ 6.365.5 million (2011);
• Market value - $ 25,322.7 (2012) ^[25] .

For 2012:

• Workers in the USA - 16,939 people;
• Workers outside the United States - 18,223 people;
• Staff turnover - 3%;
• The number of applications for a place is 149 thousand resumes ^[26] .

Corporate Culture

General Mills has been ranked eight times in the top 100 US employers list. In 2012, she took 63rd place ^[26] .

In particular, the company adheres to a policy of eliminating discrimination , including representatives of non-traditional sexual orientation . In June 2012, the company’s vice president of minority rights stated that General Mills was opposed to an amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage in Minnesota and contrary to General Mills corporate values. ^[27] The position of the company caused a positive response in society ^[28] .

The company pays special attention to employee training as an important component of corporate culture. So, employees draw up individual development plans ( IPR ), for which the company provides the necessary resources. In the preparation of these plans help special video tutorials. The company has a special training unit - General Mills Institute. General Mills encourages cross-functional career growth using special rotation programs ^[29] .

Corporate Governance

As of June 2013, the company's management includes:

• Kendall J. Powell - Chief Executive Officer, Chairman of the Board of Directors;
• Mark W. Addicks - Senior Vice President, Marketing Director;
• Mark Belton ( Eng. Y. Marc Belton ) - Executive Vice President, Global Strategy, Development and Marketing Innovation;
• Kofi Bruce ( Eng. Kofi Bruce ) - Vice President, Head of Treasury;
• John Church - Senior Vice President, Supplier Relations
• Peter C. Erickson ( eng. Peter C. Erickson ) - Senior Vice President of Innovation, Technology and Quality;
• Ian R. Friendly ( Ian R. Friendly ) - Executive Vice President, COO, USA;
• Kimberly A. Nelson - Senior Vice President, External Relations, President of the General Mills Foundation;
• Shawn P. O'Grady - Senior Vice President, Sales and Distribution;
• Christopher D. O'Leary - Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, International Business;
• Roderick A. Palmore ( Roderick A. Palmore ) - Executive Vice President, Head of Risk Control and Management ^[30] .

Corporate Brands

Breakfast cereal:

Some brands are sold outside the US and Canada under the Nestlé brand as part of the Cereal Partners breakfast cereal partnership .

Products for baking:

The company also produces fruit snacks, including Fruit by the Foot, Fruit Gushers, Fruit Roll-Ups and Fruit Shapes.

Cereal Snacks:

The company also produces Häagen-Dazs ice cream outside the United States.

Other brands General Mills Inc. include:

The company also produces products under the brands Cascadian Farms, Muir Glen and others, which are positioned as “ organic ”.

Russian market

Generall Mills brands on the Russian market include Green Giant (canned corn, peas, beans and tomatoes), Häagen-Daz premium ice cream and Nature Valley muesli bars ^[31]

Company Offices and Enterprises

As of mid-2008, the company has 79 production sites ^[32] . 49 of them are located in the USA, 12 in the Asia-Pacific region, 5 in Canada, 7 in Europe, 5 in Latin America, 1 in South Africa.

GMO Position

In 2012, General Mills spent 1.1 million US dollars to counter the adoption of the California Proposal 37 on the mandatory labeling of products containing genetically modified ingredients ^[33] .

• Michael Burchell, Jennifer Robin. Great company. How to Become a Dream Employer = The Great Workplace. How to Build it, How to Keep it, and Why it Matters. - M .: Alpina Publisher , 2013 .-- 272 p. - (Series "ECOPSY Library"). - ISBN 978-5-9614-4417-9 .