General Mills CEO unveils growth plans for ‘essential’ pet portfolio

General Mills (GM) CEO Jeff Harmening spoke at the Orlando conference on 18 February and talked about the company’s new initiatives in the pet sector and its international expansion plans.

The multinational owns a wide variety of consumer product brands. Its pet portfolio includes Blue Buffalo, recently acquired Edgard & Cooper and parts of Whitebridge Pet Brands’ portfolio.

Capturing more market share

The ongoing trend of pet humanization is something that gives Harmening hope for strong growth in the future. The Blue Buffalo brand has long been a leader in pushing humanization and premiumization via natural ingredients.

He outlined three main priorities for GM’s pet food sector: “continuing to lead the humanization of pet food,” growing Blue Buffalo in North America and driving its expanded portfolio.

Since GM acquired Blue Buffalo in 2018, the company has nearly doubled in size. It aims to continue this growth, as it represents “only 6.5% of the total pet food category” in the US. Initiatives include a new salmon flavor launching later this year and new advertising for its Wilderness brand segment.

GM has also introduced smaller packaging sizes to reach more affordable price points.

Focus on core markets

While speaking at the CAGNY conference, Harmening emphasized that the pet market is “critical to [GM’s] enterprise growth aspirations” and identified it as one of the company’s top focus areas, alongside cereals, snack bars, Mexican food and ice cream. Together, these categories account for roughly 50% of the company’s sales.

The company is focused on 8 core markets: North America, China, Brazil, the UK, France, Australia and India. For now, though, its presence outside North America remains small.

“With positive momentum in North America and a small but fast-growing presence in international markets, I am confident we’ll continue to accelerate our pet food business and see it once again drive differential growth and profitability for General Mills,” Harmening noted.

Uncertain guidance

Despite its confidence in the pet segment, GM has not updated or reaffirmed its guidance for 2025, with the CEO noting that the company was waiting for more data points.

“It’s been a volatile couple of months,” he said, referencing potential tariffs proposed by the Trump administration.

However, Harmening also noted that GM is relatively insulated from tariffs, with 95% of its products sourced domestically, adding that steel and aluminum tariffs set to take effect in March could impact canned pet foods.