General Mills Inc Q2 2025 Earnings Call Summary

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Andrew Lazar - Barclays Bank PLC - Analyst : Jeff, as you mentioned, this fiscal year was always meant to be about sort of improving in-market competitiveness across the portfolio. And just now that we're halfway through, I still have to get a better sense on sort of what learnings you've taken away from maybe the initial efforts and how those learnings are kind of informing your back half expectations particularly in light of sort of the planned incremental spend. Is it that you now see the consumer is just more ready to engage than before and maybe better adjusting their reference price points? Or simply just realizing that it requires more spend than had originally anticipated to drive sort of the requisite volume, even outside of refrigerated dough? So I guess I'm just trying to get a better sense on sort of where the consumer is at this point, and maybe how much of the incremental investment is specific to dough versus some of the other brands in the portfolio?

Question: Peter Galbo - Bank of America - Analyst : Dana, maybe just to pick up on the back of Andrew's question there. I think I heard you say that the incremental investment in the back half is targeted. I do think there's some concern this morning that it's more broad-based. So just wanted to clarify on that. And just part b of that question is really how do you think about -- is this enough? Obviously, you came into the year, you had certain plans. You're now accelerating that. How do you get confidence around the fact that the investments you're making now are going to be enough such that in three, six, nine months, we're not necessarily revisiting this again?

Question: Peter Galbo - Bank of America - Analyst : Okay. No, that's helpful. And maybe just a follow-up on Pet as well. I think if you kind of remove the retailer lap from last year, you probably still would have been up on an organic basis in Pet sales, which is encouraging. I'm just curious kind of how you think about the context of that underlying momentum into the back half.

Question: Ken Goldman - J.P.Morgan - Analyst : I wanted to ask a little bit just in light of the -- of Kofi, your comments about, I think, the -- most of the benefits, the onetime benefits in terms of trade inventory and the timing of spend in 2Q, that flipping into -- or reversal in 3Q. Is there any more color you can provide us on kind of how you want us to think about the shape of the third quarter, either relative to last year or relative to 2Q? Obviously, we can do some of the math, but just wanted to get a better sense for how that all flows into the bottom line.

Question: Ken Goldman - J.P.Morgan - Analyst : Okay. And then a little bit of a random question, but just seeing double-digit declines in your Haagen-Dazs business in stores. I appreciate that you're looking to sort of diversify the channels that you work with there. But how sustainable do you see that double-digit decline? What is your outlook there? And is there any chance -- I guess, I'm getting at that you'll consider kind of the broader footprint of that retail store business that you have there?

Question: Leah Jordan - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : It looks like you've raised your input cost inflation for the year to 4% from 3% to 4% last quarter. Just think if you could provide more color on the drivers behind that? Where are you seeing the most [mature] across your portfolio? And how do you think about your ability to mitigate some of that going forward?

Question: Leah Jordan - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : (technical difficulty) separate the (technical difficulty) the quarter for a minute and just talk about the regulatory environment. We have a combination of page (technical difficulty). Just could you discuss what you're thinking about (technical difficulty) back to your business. And I've seen it (technical difficulty) there has been a (inaudible).

Question: Chris Carey - Wells Fargo - Analyst : I have a kind of like an M&A quick question, then a bigger picture follow-up. I know the guidance does not include the yogurt divestiture nor White Bridge. But how do you see that two of these -- or perhaps can you provide any color on how the two of these deals together may impact the dilution yogurt was seeing, I think low single-digit percentage dilutive, White Bridge, fairly de minimis. But is there -- will you be using any of the proceeds from yogurt to fund of White Bridge? How do these two deals work together to inform implications for the model over the next 12 to 18 months? If you have any incremental color on that, I'd be curious then I have a quick follow-up.

Question: Chris Carey - Wells Fargo - Analyst : Okay. Okay. Great. A bigger picture question. If we go back over the, I don't know, many, many months at this point, of sustained normalization in the broader packaged food space, Jeff has been vocal about various things that would need to happen to drive an uptick in promo activity if you think about, I don't know how far that commentary goes back at this point. And anyway, and here we are with the sector trends getting better. But clearly, based on today, not getting better or fast enough. And I realize there are caveats with Pillsbury and some other dynamics. But what do you think is your, I guess, bigger picture assessment of just the slow pace of recovery here? I know GLP-1s and all these other things are mentioned, which sometimes feel less tangible, but is it simply as simple as the consumer is seeking value? Are private label operators becoming a lot more aggressive in going after consumers? How does this all kind of fit together to where we are today with clearly things taking longer? And if we can diagnose that, maybe there's a chance to build a bit more confidence over the next 12 months. I know it's not an overly specific question, but if that incites any thoughts, I'd be curious. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. DECEMBER 18, 2024 / 2:00PM, GIS.N - Q2 2025 General Mills Inc Earnings Call

Question: Steve Powers - Deutsche Bank - Analyst : Two quick ones for me. The first one, just focusing on North American Retail. If I -- if we look at the consumption data this quarter, the yogurt business has actually been doing well in terms of accelerating growth. It's actually -- I think it's contributed about 50 basis REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. DECEMBER 18, 2024 / 2:00PM, GIS.N - Q2 2025 General Mills Inc Earnings Call points to growth in the consumption data. I'm just curious if that's consistent with the impact on reported results, just as we think about the underlying kind of run rate of the business with that business set for divestment? That's question number one. And then question number two is actually for Kofi. You mentioned the incentive comp reset in the back half. And as you said, that was contemplated from the start. But the language changed a little bit this quarter, and I think it said something like partial reset. I'm assuming because of the guidance range today, the incentive comp build may not be 100%. So is there any kind of quantification of that, the relative change versus prior? That would be helpful.

Question: Tom Palmer - Citi - Analyst : In past quarters, you've highlighted that your categories are growing 1% to 2%. And I think share losses was really the focus that needed to be mitigated. You gave some helpful commentary on the share loss side, but I wondered what you're seeing for aggregate category growth. Is that holding into the extent that you anticipated? Are there things you can do, especially in categories where you're a quite large share to kind of stimulate the category as a whole?

Question: Tom Palmer - Citi - Analyst : Also wanted to ask on expected margin trajectory for the Pet segment. I know there were some timing benefits called out in North America Retail. It sounded like the inventory benefits that you had this year were less so about this year having an unusual sales level in more prior years being maybe artificially low with inventory cuts. So I guess with that, if I look at the margin base that we've seen in the past couple of quarters has been more favorable year on year, is that something that can continue as we move through the back half of the year? Or are there timing or investment considerations for Pet in addition in North America?