Food company plans to eliminate 400-600 jobs

MINNEAPOLIS — General Mills has unveiled a new global organizational structure that eliminates a key international post and will result in hundreds of job cuts.

The food company said Monday that it’s dropping the position of international chief operating officer. The move comes following the June promotion of Jeff Harmening to president and COO, which gave him responsibility for global operations, reporting to chairman and chief executive officer Ken Powell.

Starting Jan. 1, four business groups — each led by a group president — will report directly to Harmening: North America Retail (U.S. retail and Canada), led by Jon Nudi; Europe and Australia, led by Bethany Quam; Asia and Latin America, led by Christina Law; and Convenience Stores and Foodservice, led by Shawn O’Grady.

General Mills said the restructuring, which will pare 400 to 600 jobs worldwide, will foster growth and sharpen efficiency by streamlining leadership, maximizing global scale and boosting operational agility.

“As we wrap up our 150th anniversary year, we are ready to take the next step in our journey to truly operate as a global company and fully resource our best ideas to drive growth,” Powell said in a statement.

Besides the four business groups, General Mills is realigning its dairy strategic brand unit (SBU) to the new global structure. Based in France and led by Olivier Faujour, the Dairy SBU will report to Harmening and work with the group presidents to identify other opportunities to spur growth and innovation for the dairy platform worldwide. General Mills said it holds No. 2 positions globally in yogurt and super-premium ice cream, with brands including Yoplait and Häagen-Dazs.

The company added that it also will hone its growth capabilities in such areas as strategic revenue management (SRM), e-commerce and marketing innovation. To that end, it aims to bolster its current talent with external expertise in those areas over the next few months.

The new global revenue development group, which includes SRM and e-commerce, will report to O’Grady, who serves as senior vice president of global revenue development as well as group president of Convenience Stores and Foodservice. Plans call for the company to name a new global chief marketing officer and marketing innovation leader who will report to Harmening.

Global operations functions including innovation, technology and quality, and supply chain will continue to report to Harmening, while global corporate functions such as finance, legal, human resources and external relations will continue to report to Powell.

“We continue to prioritize both growth and returns,” Harmening stated.  “The structural changes announced today will help us unlock global growth opportunities and go after them by efficiently restructuring our teams and processes.  In addition, the capability investments and savings generated by these changes will help us deliver our fiscal 2018 adjusted operating profit margin target of 20%.”

Minneapolis-based General Mills’ roster of brands includes Cheerios, Annie’s, Yoplait, Nature Valley, Fiber One, Häagen-Dazs, Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Old El Paso, Wanchai Ferry and Yoki, among others. Its fiscal 2016 net sales totaled $16.6 billion.