General Mills has unveiled a new organisational structure that it said would help it to support growth and maximise its scale.
The changes will ‘drive greater efficiency by streamlining the company’s leadership, maximising its global scale and increasing its operational agility’, General Mills said.
From 1 January, the Minneapolis-based company will eliminate the position of international chief operating officer; it will instead create four business groups covering North America retail, Europe and Australia, Asia and Latin America, plus convenience stores and foodservice. All will report to the company’s new chief operating officer Jeff Harmening, who previously assumed global operations responsibilities for General Mills.
In addition to the four business groups, the company will align its current dairy strategic brand unit to this new global organisational structure. The unit, based in France and led by Olivier Faujour, will also report to Harmening and will work with the four group presidents to explore further opportunities to drive growth and innovation for the dairy platform globally.
The company will also enhance its growth capabilities in several areas including strategic revenue management, e-commerce, and marketing innovation, and intends to ‘augment’ its existing talent with external expertise in these areas during the coming months.
The scale of the changes could mean that they affect 600 positions worldwide.
General Mills chairman and CEO Ken Powell said: “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.”
And Jeff Harmening, president and chief operating officer of General Mills, added: “We continue to prioritise both growth and returns. 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 [targets].”
© FoodBev Media Ltd 2024