Yahoo Finance General Mills (GIS) Gains From Accelerate Strategy, Solid Brands
General Mills, Inc.’s GIS success story can be attributed to the company’s relentless focus on the Accelerate strategy. This branded consumer food company’s brand strength and pricing actions have been working well amid cost inflation.
Accelerate Strategy in Place
General Mills is fully committed to its “Accelerate Strategy” set in motion in early 2021 to sharpen business focus and elevate profitability over time. For fiscal 2024, this multi-year strategy centers on three priorities. These include enhancing competitive edge through impactful brand development, fostering innovation and utilizing the company’s strengths to succeed in an evolving consumer landscape. Further, management is dedicated to enhancing supply chain efficiency, emphasizing Holistic Margin Management (“HMM”) savings and mitigating costs associated with disruptions in the supply chain.
Additionally, GIS is committed to prudent capital allocation, which involves investing in operations, providing robust returns to shareholders and ensuring balance sheet flexibility for potential portfolio-reshaping actions. The 'Accelerate' strategy is designed to maximize General Mills' extensive scale, enhance operational efficiency and boost returns for shareholders. This positions the company not only for current resilience but also for sustained growth over the long term.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Brand Strength & Pricing
The company has been benefiting from the strength of its brands, robust pricing actions and a focus on its Accelerate strategy. General Mills owns many brands with leading market share positions in their categories. Several of its flagship brands hold the number one or two position by dollar share in their segments. Brands like Pillsbury, Totino's, Betty Crocker and Old El Paso boast strong market share in baked goods, pizza, baking mixes and Mexican food categories, respectively.
Many of these brands command strong consumer loyalty and affinity built over many years through marketing and innovation. This grants General Mills more pricing flexibility than less established competitors. Through pricing actions and mix optimization, the company has delivered steady annualized net sales growth over fiscal 2018-2023. Pricing gains effectively protected profitability in fiscal 2023 by offsetting high input cost inflation. The strength of its brands also lends resilience to volumes compared with the broader category.
Current Challenges
General Mills faces ongoing margin pressure from rising production costs. Although offset by the price/mix and HMM cost savings, the adjusted gross margin in the third quarter of fiscal 2024 was partly hurt by input cost inflation, increased other supply chain costs and supply chain deleverage. Management anticipates continued input cost inflation on its cost of goods sold during the fourth quarter.
Apart from this, the company’s Pet segment sales have been declining year over year for the past few quarters. Although results improved sequentially in the third quarter of fiscal 2024, management stated that it still has a lot more work left in its Pet Retail channel and Wilderness line.
Wrapping Up
Gains from the Accelerate strategy, cost-saving initiatives and other growth efforts keep GIS well-positioned for growth. The company is on track to deliver HMM cost savings of 5% in fiscal 2024, which is higher than the year-ago period. During the fiscal, adjusted operating profit growth at cc is anticipated at 4-5%. Management anticipates adjusted EPS growth of 4% and 5% at cc. This Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company’s shares have increased 8.5% in the past three months against the industry’s decline of 0.6%.
Appetizing Food Picks
Vital Farms Inc. VITL offers a range of produced pasture-raised foods. It currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). VITL has a trailing four-quarter average earnings surprise of 155.4%. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Vital Farms’ current financial-year sales and earnings suggests growth of 18.7% and 30.5%, respectively, from the year-ago reported numbers.
Utz Brands Inc. UTZ manufactures a diverse portfolio of salty snacks and currently carries a Zacks Rank #2. UTZ has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 2.6% on average.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Utz Brands’ current financial-year earnings suggests growth of 19.3% from the year-ago reported numbers.
Celsius Holdings CELH, which offers functional drinks and liquid supplements, currently carries a Zacks Rank #2. CELH has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 67.4%, on average.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Celsius Holdings’ current financial-year sales and earnings suggests growth of 41.6% each from the year-ago reported figures.
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
General Mills, Inc. (GIS) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Celsius Holdings Inc. (CELH) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Vital Farms, Inc. (VITL) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Utz Brands, Inc. (UTZ) : Free Stock Analysis Report
