A maker of packaged foods sold under more than a hundred brands in a hundred countries — think Cheerios, Progresso soup, and Blue Buffalo pet food. Born in 1928 from a merger of Minneapolis flour mills that dated to the 1860s, it grew from milling Gold Medal flour into one of the world's largest food companies. Fun fact: its iconic Cheerios cereal was first named "Cheerioats" until a trademark spat with Quaker Oats forced a rename in 1945.
10-K · Fiscal year ended May 31, 2026 · SEC filing ↗
General Mills took $2.97B in charges, including a $1.5B Pet goodwill impairment, pushing FY2026 operating profit down 73%.
General Mills wrote down the value of its pet food business by $1.5 billion, turning a year of modest sales decline into a reported operating loss. fell 5% to $18.4 billion and adjusted dropped 16% in as higher input costs and lower volume outweighed pricing. The company enters fiscal 2027 guiding to another year of declining profit, with tariffs and cost inflation still unquantified.
Key takeaways
Reported fell 73% to $886 million, driven by $2.97 billion in restructuring, transformation, , and other exit costs — the largest of which was a $1.5 billion in the North America Pet .
Adjusted , which excludes those charges, declined 16% on a constant-currency basis to $2.8 billion, as 4% input cost inflation and lower volume contributions outweighed favorable net price realization and mix.
Section summaries
Business
General Mills operates four segments across human and pet food, selling 100+ brands in 100 countries with Walmart at 22% of sales.
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The company manages four : North America Retail, International, North America Pet, and North America Foodservice.
Product categories span snacks, ready-to-eat cereal, convenient meals, wholesome natural pet food, dough, baking mixes, and super-premium ice cream.
Walmart accounted for 22% of consolidated and 31% of North America Retail sales in fiscal 2026.
fell 2% for the full year, with organic pound volume down and price/mix turning unfavorable as the company increased consumer value investments in response to value-seeking behavior.
The North America Retail , the company's largest, saw organic sales fall 3% and segment drop 33% in the first quarter alone, driven by lower volume and higher input costs.
The International was the lone bright spot, with rising 96% to $189 million on favorable price/mix and lower SG&A expenses, even as organic sales grew only 1%.
fell 29% to $1.6 billion, with conversion dropping to 85% of adjusted , while the company returned $1.8 billion to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases.
What changed
The 10–15% decline in adjusted guided for fiscal 2026 materialized worse than forecast, with the actual constant-currency decline reaching 16% as input cost inflation of 4% and lower volume contributions exceeded the company's ability to offset them through pricing.
Organic pound volume in North America Retail did not stabilize: the 's organic sales fell 3% for the full year, and the 4% organic sales decline in Q1 FY2026 showed the decline accelerating rather than reversing despite increased brand-building investment.
The Whitebridge Pet Brands acquisition did not offset legacy weakness: North America Pet organic sales fell 3% on a 5-point organic volume decline, and the 's was impaired by $1.5 billion, signaling a structural reset in the value of the business rather than a temporary integration disruption.
The financial impact of U.S. tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico, and China remained unquantified through the end of fiscal 2026, with the company stating only that tariffs will affect consolidated results without providing a dollar estimate.
The International 's multi-year profit decline reversed sharply, with nearly doubling to $189 million, though the improvement was driven by cost actions and favorable price/mix rather than organic sales growth, which remained at just 1%.
What to watch
Whether the 8–13% decline in adjusted guided for fiscal 2027 materializes as forecast, or if the 4–5% input cost inflation and tariff impacts push the decline beyond the guided range.
The trajectory of organic pound volume in North America Retail, to see if the 's 3% organic sales decline in fiscal 2026 stabilizes or deepens as consumer value-seeking behavior persists.
Whether the International 's 96% increase can be sustained, given that it was driven by cost actions and price/mix rather than organic sales growth, which remained at just 1%.
The financial impact of U.S. tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico, and China, which the company has said will affect consolidated results in fiscal 2027 but has not yet quantified.
It holds 50% stakes in Cereal Partners Worldwide (with Nestlé) and Häagen-Dazs Japan, extending reach in cereal and ice cream outside North America.
Competition is intense across all categories, based on innovation, quality, price, brand loyalty, and supply chain efficiency.
The company employs approximately 30,000 people globally, split evenly between U.S. and international, with 12,000 in production roles.
Intense competition, commodity inflation, retail consolidation, and a heavy debt load are the most prominent risks facing the company.
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Walmart accounted for 22% of consolidated and 31% of North America Retail net sales in fiscal 2026, creating significant customer concentration risk.
Commodity price volatility for key raw materials like grains, oils, and dairy is exacerbated by trade tariffs and geopolitical events, and the company does not fully hedge this exposure.
The company carries $13.6 billion in total debt, which could limit financial flexibility and make it more vulnerable to economic downturns.
and total $20.6 billion, with the Blue Buffalo and Progresso brands specifically flagged as having a risk of decreasing coverage in tests.
A consolidating retail environment is increasing the purchasing power of large customers, pressuring the company's margins and profitability.
International operations, generating 20% of , face heightened risks from currency fluctuations, tariffs, and political sentiment against U.S. corporations.
General Mills operates 41 global food production facilities, with 27 in the U.S., and owns its Minneapolis-area headquarters.
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The company owns its principal executive offices and main research facilities in the Minneapolis, Minnesota metropolitan area.
As of May 31, 2026, General Mills operated 41 production facilities worldwide, with 27 located in the United States.
Principal production facilities are listed by : North America Retail (14 sites), International (12 sites), North America Pet (2 sites), and North America Foodservice (4 sites).
The company operates U.S. grain elevators and utilizes approximately 16 million square feet of warehouse and distribution space, nearly all leased, primarily for North America Retail and Pet segments.
Sales and administrative offices total about 2 million square feet globally, with additional space at plant locations.
The Häagen-Dazs business in the International includes 232 leased and 376 franchised ice cream parlors outside the U.S. and Canada.
We are the subject of various pending or threatened legal actions in the ordinary course of our business. All such matters are subject to many uncertainties and outcomes that are not predictable with assurance. In our opinion, there were no claims or litigation pending as of May…
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We are the subject of various pending or threatened legal actions in the ordinary course of our business. All such matters are subject to
many uncertainties and outcomes that are not predictable with assurance. In our opinion, there were no claims or litigation pending as
of May 31, 2026, that were reasonably likely to have a material adverse effect on our consolidated financial position or results of
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operations. See the information contained under the section entitled “Environmental Matters” in Item 1 of this report for a discussion
of environmental matters in which we are involved.
Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk
The company uses VAR to quantify potential one-day fair-value losses from interest rate, currency, commodity, and equity instruments under normal market conditions.
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The company is exposed to market risk from changes in interest rates, foreign exchange rates, commodity prices, and equity prices.
It actively manages these exposures by entering into hedging transactions, primarily using , under established policies.
A with a 95% confidence level is used to estimate the maximum potential one-day loss in fair value.
As of May 31, 2026, the estimated one-day VAR was $37 million for interest rate instruments, $46 million for foreign currency instruments, $4 million for commodity instruments, and $2 million for equity instruments.
The VAR calculation does not include the underlying exposures that are offset by these market-risk-sensitive instruments, and the company expects derivative losses or gains to be generally offset by changes in the value of the underlying exposures.
International segment operating profit surged 96% to $189M, while total segment profit fell 20% to $2,189M in fiscal 2026.
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Total declined 20% to $2,189 million, driven by lower volume contributions and higher input costs, partially offset by favorable .
International rose 9% to $3,043.8 million, with organic net sales up 3% on higher organic volume and favorable price/mix.
North America Pet grew 6% to $2,613.3 million, entirely from the Whitebridge Pet Brands acquisition and a 53rd week; organic net sales fell 3% on a 5-point organic volume decline.
North America Foodservice decreased 6% to $2,169.5 million, with organic net sales down 1% as lower organic volume was partly offset by favorable price/mix.
Unallocated corporate expense was $402 million, including $19 million in restructuring charges and $31 million in transaction costs mainly tied to Divestitures and the planned Brazil sale.
Global input cost inflation was 4% in fiscal 2026, and the company expects 4% to 5% inflation in fiscal 2027.