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General Mills

General Mills is a prominent global food production company with origins dating back to the 1860s, initially established as a flour-milling business in Minnesota. The company, officially formed in 1928 through the merger of several local milling firms, has a history marked by product diversification and innovative marketing strategies. During the Great Depression and World War II, General Mills adapted by developing new food products and engineering solutions to support the military efforts. Over the decades, the company expanded its portfolio, acquiring well-known brands such as Betty Crocker and Pillsbury, which further solidified its position in the food industry.

General Mills is recognized for its extensive range of products, including popular cereals like Cheerios and Lucky Charms, as well as frozen and canned foods. By 2023, the company boasted over one hundred brands and significant annual revenue exceeding $19 billion. With a workforce of approximately 32,500 employees, General Mills remains a key player in the global food market, continually evolving to meet consumer preferences and industry trends. The company’s commitment to product innovation and strategic partnerships reflects its long-standing legacy in the food sector.

Full Article

  • Date founded: June 20, 1928
  • Industry: Food Products
  • Corporate Headquarters: Minneapolis, Minnesota.
  • Type: Public

Overview

General Mills is a large food production company with roots stretching back to the 1860s. It began as a flour-milling company, an origin reflected in the company’s name. The company combined with other local businesses to incorporate as General Mills in 1928. General Mills continued to expand its product lines and survived the Great Depression of the 1920s and 1930s through skillful advertising and product diversification. During World War II (1939–45), General Mills engineers developed products for the United States military. At home, its factories manufactured goods that the nation needed during the time of war.

General Mills continued to diversify after the war. The company invested heavily in the toy market, buying the company that produced Play-Doh and the company behind the board game Monopoly. General Mills decided to leave the toy market in the 1980s and sold most of its holdings in those areas. In the early twenty-first century, General Mills purchased Pillsbury, a former competitor best known for its line of easy-to-make baked goods.

History

The story of General Mills began in 1866 when the Minneapolis Milling Company opened its first flour mill in St. Anthony Falls, Minnesota. The Minneapolis Milling Company was owned by entrepreneur Cadwallader Washburn. At the time, flour milling was considered a risky endeavor; some critics were concerned that the new mill would produce more flour than the public wanted, causing the price of flour to plummet. This was compounded by the fact that a local miller, C.A. Pillsbury, had already established a business in the market.

In 1877, the Minneapolis Milling Company partnered with entrepreneur John Crosby and changed its name to the Washburn Crosby Company. A year later, one of the company’s flour mills caught fire and exploded, killing eighteen people. In the aftermath of the disaster, Pillsbury and the Washburn Crosby Company created the Minneapolis Millers Association in an attempt to improve both safety standards and the quality of their flour. These advancements made Minneapolis one of the largest flour-producing regions in the United States.

In 1925, James Ford Bell, the president of the Washburn Crosby Company, was offered $40 million for a total purchase of the company. Though Bell initially agreed to the deal, he was later rebuked by the board that managed the company, and the deal was canceled. In the wake of the canceled deal, the Washburn Crosby Company sought out the partnership of George F. Baker, a wealthy and powerful banker from New York City. Baker and the company worked together to restructure the milling industry, merging Washburn Crosby with several other local milling companies and creating General Mills on June 20, 1928.

Overview

The year after General Mills was formed, the stock market crashed, ushering in the Great Depression. Bell, who had previously managed flour mills in the United States during World War I (1914–18), was prepared for the economic downturn. He added a research department that was dedicated to helping the company develop new products to diversify its product base. General Mills developed a process for puffing cereal, resulting in the development of Trix, one of the first non-flake cereals, in 1954. The company also developed Bisquick, a premixed baking mix. During this time, General Mills also heavily utilized the emerging medium of radio as a form of advertisement and community engagement.

After the outbreak of World War II, General Mills was part of the mass mobilization of US industries to aid the war effort. The company’s mechanics and engineering department helped create a jitterbug torpedo, giving American vessels an advantage in naval combat. Its large manufacturing plants also helped create food products essential to US soldiers and Americans at home. General Mills also hired thousands of additional workers in order to increase the amount of goods it could produce for the war.

After the war, General Mills continued producing food and other household items. They became known for their large line of successful breakfast cereals, most notably Cheerios and Wheaties. However, General Mills did not abandon its engineering or mechanical divisions. These divisions continued working with the US government to develop other technologies. Among them were large plastic balloons that could lift heavy supplies into the air and the weatherproof and impact-resistant data storage devices called “black boxes” utilized on airplanes.

In the 1960s, General Mills sought to expand into the toy market and acquired dozens of new companies. It purchased Rainbow Crafts, the company that created the famous Play-Doh clay, and Parker Brothers, the board game company that created the classic game Monopoly. However, in the 1980s, the company came under new leadership and decided to change its economic strategy. General Mills decided to refocus its efforts on a smaller number of industries, primarily industries in which the company had decades of experience. As a result, General Mills sold most of its holdings in retail and toys and decided to focus on foods.

In 2000, General Mills began negotiations with Pillsbury to purchase the brand. Diageo, the large British company that had purchased Pillsbury in 1989, reached an agreement with General Mills to sell the company for about $10.5 billion. The former competitors were initially excited about the merger, believing that their business cultures and products were a good fit.

Once the purchase was finalized, General Mills became the fourth-largest food company in the world. In the merger, General Mills added Pillsbury’s line of baked goods. Though some analysts believed General Mills was pressured into paying too steep a price for Pillsbury, the merger quickly became profitable for the food giant. During the same time period, General Mills acquired Small Planet Foods and branched into organic foods. Other major acquisitions that General Mills has made in the twenty-first century include natural food company, Annie’s, and Blue Buffalo pet food products.

In 2022, General Mills sold their classic brands Hamburger Helper and Suddenly Salad to Eagle Family Foods Group for $610 million.  

In June 2024, General Mills was involved in a discrimination lawsuit filed by eight Black American employees at one of its plants in Georgia. The lawsuit alleged a decades-long environment of racism at the plant; not only were supervisors preferential to White employees, but they were also overtly racist. The lawsuit alleged that incidents, such as a noose hanging in the break room or complaints about a mural of company leaders as Confederate generals, were ignored by human resources. General Mills did not comment but asserted its company culture was one of diversity and inclusion.

In 2025, the brand sold its US Yogurt Business to Lactalis and its Canadian business to Sodiaal for an aggregate value of approximately $1.2 billion.

Between December 2025 and January 2026, General Mills voluntarily recalled a select range of its Pillsbury Pizza Pop products, sold in Canada, after a potential risk of E. coli contamination.

Impact

General Mills is one of the largest global food companies, with more than one hundred brands by 2023. Among those brands are Gold Medal flour, the best-selling flour brand in the United States, Progresso soups, and the brands Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, Nature Valley, Old El Paso, and Blue Buffalo. General Mills also sells numerous types of cereals, including Cheerios, Wheaties, Lucky Charms, and Trix. The company branched into ice cream by purchasing the brand Häagen-Dazs and managing its operations globally (excluding the United States and Canada). In the fiscal year ending May 2025, General Mills employed 33,000 people worldwide, and the company reported sales of about $19.5 billion for the same period.


Bibliography

“About Us.” General Mills, www.generalmills.com/about-us. Accessed 20 Feb. 2026.

Brooks, Khristopher J. “General Mills Turned Blind Eye to Decades of Racism at Georgia Plant, Black Workers Allege.” CBS News, 5 June 2024, www.cbsnews.com/news/general-mills-lawsuit-black-workers-georgia-racism/. Accessed 20 Feb. 2026.

Business Wire. “General Mills Expands Dec. 21, 2025, Voluntary Recall of Select Pillsbury Pizza Pops Products.” Financial Post, 25 Jan. 2026, financialpost.com/pmn/business-wire-news-releases-pmn/general-mills-expands-dec-21-2025-voluntary-recall-of-select-pillsbury-pizza-pops-products. Accessed 20 Feb. 2026.

General Mills, Inc. “General Mills Completes Sale of U.S. Yogurt Business to Lactalis.” Business Wire, 30 June 2025, www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250630432301/en/General-Mills-Completes-Sale-of-U.S.-Yogurt-Business-to-Lactalis. Accessed 20 Feb. 2026.

Hoium, Travis. “Why General Mills, Inc. Stock Has Dropped 24.3% in 2018.” The Motley Fool, 15 July 2018, www.fool.com/investing/2018/07/15/why-general-mills-inc-stock-has-dropped-243-in-201.aspx. Accessed 20 Feb. 2026.

“Press Release Details: General Mills Completes Sale of Helper and Suddenly Salad Businesses.” General Mills, 5 July 2022, investors.generalmills.com/press-releases/press-release-details/2022/General-Mills-Completes-Sale-of-Helper-and-Suddenly-Salad-Businesses/default.aspx. Accessed 20 Feb. 2026.

“Press Release Details: General Mills Reports Fiscal 2024 Fourth-Quarter and Full-Year Results and Provides Fiscal 2025 Outlook.” General Mills, 26 June 2024, investors.generalmills.com/press-releases/press-release-details/2024/General-Mills-Reports-Fiscal-2024-Fourth-quarter-and-Full-year-Results-and-Provides-Fiscal-2025-Outlook/default.aspx. Accessed 20 Feb. 2026.

Snyder, John. “General Mills: The Leader in Packaged Foods.” Seeking Alpha, 16 Jan. 2019, seekingalpha.com/article/4233769-general-mills-leader-packaged-foods. Accessed 20 Feb. 2026.

“This Week in Food History: The Creation of General Mills.” Manufacturing.net, 24 June 2015, www.manufacturing.net/blog/2015/06/week-food-history-creation-general-mills. Accessed 20 Feb. 2026.

Wiener-Bronner, Danielle. “General Mills Is Leaning into Pet Food.” CNN, 19 Dec. 2018, www.cnn.com/2018/12/19/business/general-mills-pet-food/index.html. Accessed 20 Feb. 2026.

Full Article

  • Date founded: June 20, 1928
  • Industry: Food Products
  • Corporate Headquarters: Minneapolis, Minnesota.
  • Type: Public

Overview

General Mills is a large food production company with roots stretching back to the 1860s. It began as a flour-milling company, an origin reflected in the company’s name. The company combined with other local businesses to incorporate as General Mills in 1928. General Mills continued to expand its product lines and survived the Great Depression of the 1920s and 1930s through skillful advertising and product diversification. During World War II (1939–45), General Mills engineers developed products for the United States military. At home, its factories manufactured goods that the nation needed during the time of war.

General Mills continued to diversify after the war. The company invested heavily in the toy market, buying the company that produced Play-Doh and the company behind the board game Monopoly. General Mills decided to leave the toy market in the 1980s and sold most of its holdings in those areas. In the early twenty-first century, General Mills purchased Pillsbury, a former competitor best known for its line of easy-to-make baked goods.

History

The story of General Mills began in 1866 when the Minneapolis Milling Company opened its first flour mill in St. Anthony Falls, Minnesota. The Minneapolis Milling Company was owned by entrepreneur Cadwallader Washburn. At the time, flour milling was considered a risky endeavor; some critics were concerned that the new mill would produce more flour than the public wanted, causing the price of flour to plummet. This was compounded by the fact that a local miller, C.A. Pillsbury, had already established a business in the market.

In 1877, the Minneapolis Milling Company partnered with entrepreneur John Crosby and changed its name to the Washburn Crosby Company. A year later, one of the company’s flour mills caught fire and exploded, killing eighteen people. In the aftermath of the disaster, Pillsbury and the Washburn Crosby Company created the Minneapolis Millers Association in an attempt to improve both safety standards and the quality of their flour. These advancements made Minneapolis one of the largest flour-producing regions in the United States.

In 1925, James Ford Bell, the president of the Washburn Crosby Company, was offered $40 million for a total purchase of the company. Though Bell initially agreed to the deal, he was later rebuked by the board that managed the company, and the deal was canceled. In the wake of the canceled deal, the Washburn Crosby Company sought out the partnership of George F. Baker, a wealthy and powerful banker from New York City. Baker and the company worked together to restructure the milling industry, merging Washburn Crosby with several other local milling companies and creating General Mills on June 20, 1928.

Overview

The year after General Mills was formed, the stock market crashed, ushering in the Great Depression. Bell, who had previously managed flour mills in the United States during World War I (1914–18), was prepared for the economic downturn. He added a research department that was dedicated to helping the company develop new products to diversify its product base. General Mills developed a process for puffing cereal, resulting in the development of Trix, one of the first non-flake cereals, in 1954. The company also developed Bisquick, a premixed baking mix. During this time, General Mills also heavily utilized the emerging medium of radio as a form of advertisement and community engagement.

After the outbreak of World War II, General Mills was part of the mass mobilization of US industries to aid the war effort. The company’s mechanics and engineering department helped create a jitterbug torpedo, giving American vessels an advantage in naval combat. Its large manufacturing plants also helped create food products essential to US soldiers and Americans at home. General Mills also hired thousands of additional workers in order to increase the amount of goods it could produce for the war.

After the war, General Mills continued producing food and other household items. They became known for their large line of successful breakfast cereals, most notably Cheerios and Wheaties. However, General Mills did not abandon its engineering or mechanical divisions. These divisions continued working with the US government to develop other technologies. Among them were large plastic balloons that could lift heavy supplies into the air and the weatherproof and impact-resistant data storage devices called “black boxes” utilized on airplanes.

In the 1960s, General Mills sought to expand into the toy market and acquired dozens of new companies. It purchased Rainbow Crafts, the company that created the famous Play-Doh clay, and Parker Brothers, the board game company that created the classic game Monopoly. However, in the 1980s, the company came under new leadership and decided to change its economic strategy. General Mills decided to refocus its efforts on a smaller number of industries, primarily industries in which the company had decades of experience. As a result, General Mills sold most of its holdings in retail and toys and decided to focus on foods.

In 2000, General Mills began negotiations with Pillsbury to purchase the brand. Diageo, the large British company that had purchased Pillsbury in 1989, reached an agreement with General Mills to sell the company for about $10.5 billion. The former competitors were initially excited about the merger, believing that their business cultures and products were a good fit.

Once the purchase was finalized, General Mills became the fourth-largest food company in the world. In the merger, General Mills added Pillsbury’s line of baked goods. Though some analysts believed General Mills was pressured into paying too steep a price for Pillsbury, the merger quickly became profitable for the food giant. During the same time period, General Mills acquired Small Planet Foods and branched into organic foods. Other major acquisitions that General Mills has made in the twenty-first century include natural food company, Annie’s, and Blue Buffalo pet food products.

In 2022, General Mills sold their classic brands Hamburger Helper and Suddenly Salad to Eagle Family Foods Group for $610 million.  

In June 2024, General Mills was involved in a discrimination lawsuit filed by eight Black American employees at one of its plants in Georgia. The lawsuit alleged a decades-long environment of racism at the plant; not only were supervisors preferential to White employees, but they were also overtly racist. The lawsuit alleged that incidents, such as a noose hanging in the break room or complaints about a mural of company leaders as Confederate generals, were ignored by human resources. General Mills did not comment but asserted its company culture was one of diversity and inclusion.

In 2025, the brand sold its US Yogurt Business to Lactalis and its Canadian business to Sodiaal for an aggregate value of approximately $1.2 billion.

Between December 2025 and January 2026, General Mills voluntarily recalled a select range of its Pillsbury Pizza Pop products, sold in Canada, after a potential risk of E. coli contamination.

Impact

General Mills is one of the largest global food companies, with more than one hundred brands by 2023. Among those brands are Gold Medal flour, the best-selling flour brand in the United States, Progresso soups, and the brands Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, Nature Valley, Old El Paso, and Blue Buffalo. General Mills also sells numerous types of cereals, including Cheerios, Wheaties, Lucky Charms, and Trix. The company branched into ice cream by purchasing the brand Häagen-Dazs and managing its operations globally (excluding the United States and Canada). In the fiscal year ending May 2025, General Mills employed 33,000 people worldwide, and the company reported sales of about $19.5 billion for the same period.


Bibliography

“About Us.” General Mills, www.generalmills.com/about-us. Accessed 20 Feb. 2026.

Brooks, Khristopher J. “General Mills Turned Blind Eye to Decades of Racism at Georgia Plant, Black Workers Allege.” CBS News, 5 June 2024, www.cbsnews.com/news/general-mills-lawsuit-black-workers-georgia-racism/. Accessed 20 Feb. 2026.

Business Wire. “General Mills Expands Dec. 21, 2025, Voluntary Recall of Select Pillsbury Pizza Pops Products.” Financial Post, 25 Jan. 2026, financialpost.com/pmn/business-wire-news-releases-pmn/general-mills-expands-dec-21-2025-voluntary-recall-of-select-pillsbury-pizza-pops-products. Accessed 20 Feb. 2026.

General Mills, Inc. “General Mills Completes Sale of U.S. Yogurt Business to Lactalis.” Business Wire, 30 June 2025, www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250630432301/en/General-Mills-Completes-Sale-of-U.S.-Yogurt-Business-to-Lactalis. Accessed 20 Feb. 2026.

Hoium, Travis. “Why General Mills, Inc. Stock Has Dropped 24.3% in 2018.” The Motley Fool, 15 July 2018, www.fool.com/investing/2018/07/15/why-general-mills-inc-stock-has-dropped-243-in-201.aspx. Accessed 20 Feb. 2026.

“Press Release Details: General Mills Completes Sale of Helper and Suddenly Salad Businesses.” General Mills, 5 July 2022, investors.generalmills.com/press-releases/press-release-details/2022/General-Mills-Completes-Sale-of-Helper-and-Suddenly-Salad-Businesses/default.aspx. Accessed 20 Feb. 2026.

“Press Release Details: General Mills Reports Fiscal 2024 Fourth-Quarter and Full-Year Results and Provides Fiscal 2025 Outlook.” General Mills, 26 June 2024, investors.generalmills.com/press-releases/press-release-details/2024/General-Mills-Reports-Fiscal-2024-Fourth-quarter-and-Full-year-Results-and-Provides-Fiscal-2025-Outlook/default.aspx. Accessed 20 Feb. 2026.

Snyder, John. “General Mills: The Leader in Packaged Foods.” Seeking Alpha, 16 Jan. 2019, seekingalpha.com/article/4233769-general-mills-leader-packaged-foods. Accessed 20 Feb. 2026.

“This Week in Food History: The Creation of General Mills.” Manufacturing.net, 24 June 2015, www.manufacturing.net/blog/2015/06/week-food-history-creation-general-mills. Accessed 20 Feb. 2026.

Wiener-Bronner, Danielle. “General Mills Is Leaning into Pet Food.” CNN, 19 Dec. 2018, www.cnn.com/2018/12/19/business/general-mills-pet-food/index.html. Accessed 20 Feb. 2026.

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