General mills Inc. is a leading breakfast cereal companies in the world with brands such as Chex, Cocoa, Puffs, Kix, Trix, total and Cheerios. In addition to these, it produces other food lines such as betty Crocker dessert mixes, gold medal flour, Yoplait yogurt, pop secret microwave popcorn and nature valley granola bars. The company markets its products in over 90 countries worldwide (Chassy, et al). The company began to expand internationally in 1989 and has formed partners with cereal partners such as Nestle SA, a Swiss based food product giant. In 1993, general mills experienced slowdown in the core business of food products and brand name cereals. The company hired new staffs during the year to enable the company overcome the challenge. The company reaped more than $8 billion, with the consumer packaged products taking a two third of the total revenue collected. The principal subsidiaries of the company include Colombo Inc., general mills (BVI) ltd, general mills France, gold medal insurance co, Lloyd food products, Inc, mills media and Yoplait USA Inc. The strengths of the brands and breadth of opportunities provide foods that consumer demand and these are some of the factors that solidify the confidence in the growth model. The company continues to grow the revenues and sales due to it innovation and technology advances in the field of food processing. The company has also increased its research and developments in the field of food processing that gives it a competitive advantage over its competitors.
General mills share price performance from 1995 to 2015 each averaged to 11 per cent annual return. The company strong brands has made the company grow faster in sales in 2015 jumping to $1.3 billion compared to that of 1995 that was $115 million. In the world, it is understood that food preferences are changing. People are now focusing on natural foods with simpler ingredients. People are avoiding artificial ingredients, simple carbohydrates and gluten. People want more of proteins and fibre and whole grain. They are focusing much on snacks and natural and organic products. These changes have created tremendous opportunities for the company. Genetically modified food has led to disputes over the use of foods and other products derived from the genetically modified crops. There is dispute that involves the consumers, farmers and food production companies. The controversies is whether the food should be labelled, the impact of GMO on human health, effect on pesticide resistance and the role of crops in feeding the world population. There are two critical issues in the regulations of the GMOs; that is, whether the administration possessed adequate legal power to control biotechnology. The second issue is whether the regulations should preside over the process of production or the products of biotechnology. In the current world, the field of GMOs is still under debate and many countries have banned the use of GMOs. There are difference opinions from scientists in US and that of European regarding impact of GMO food on human health.
