MINNEAPOLIS — On Dec. 18, General Mills released its financial results for the second quarter and first six months of fiscal year 2025, detailing continued challenges. Though the company lowered its outlook for 2025, it remains optimistic on accelerating its business and sees promise in its pet food segment.
“We made important progress accelerating our volume growth and market share trends in the first half of the year, including returning our North America Pet business to growth,” said Jeff Harmening, chairman and chief executive officer of General Mills. “To achieve and build on these enterprise-wide gains, we’ve made incremental investments to bring consumers greater value. While these investments lower our profit outlook for fiscal 2025, they better position General Mills for sustainable growth in fiscal 2026 and beyond. Amidst a dynamic external environment, I’m not only confident in our plans, but especially our teams, who are operating with agility and doing what’s right for our consumers.”
Second quarter net sales for General Mills’ North America Pet Segment rose 5% year-over-year to $596 million, which was attributed to higher pound volume. Net sales were in the high-single digits for dry pet food, in the mid-single digits for wet pet food, and in the low-single digits for pet treats.
Organic sales were also up 5% year-over-year, outpacing Nielsen-measured US retail sales performance. According to General Mills, this reflects a rebuild of its pet segment following retail inventory reductions in the second quarter of 2023 and 2024.
Segment operating profit was up 36%, reaching $139 million, primarily attributed to HMM cost savings, higher volume and lower supply chain costs.
“We saw our US pet food business return to pound share growth and held dollar share for the first time in more than two years,” Harmening shared. “We’ll look to build on this positive share momentum as we move through the second half of fiscal 2025.”
General Mill’s pet market share continues to witness sequential market share improvement with pound share growing and dollar share flat during the second quarter. However, its Blue Buffalo brand continues to see growth.
“I’m proud of the continued progress we’ve made to restore this business to growth by focusing on Blue Buffalo’s ingredient superiority and executing our improvement plans across the portfolio,” Harmening said. “While we’re not all the way to where we want to be, we’ve continued to drive sequential improvement in our market share, with our pound share growing and dollar share flat in the US in Q2. And we like the positive momentum we’re seeing across our key product lines.”
The brand’s Life Protection Formula dry dog food line experienced high-single digit retail sales growth over the quarter. Additionally, the brand has “dramatically” reduced retail sales declines on its Wilderness dry dog food line by launching new advertising highlighting the line’s high protein content, introducing new smaller bag sizes to provide lower price points to consumers, and reintroducing grain-free varieties.
For wet pet food, Blue Buffalo adjusted price points on its targeted offerings, which is already seeing positive returns, according to Harmening.
Treats continues to be a challenge for the brand, but, according to Harmening, that segment is experiencing better shelf visibility and good merchandising execution.
Net sales for the first six months of fiscal year 2025 for North America Pet were $1.2 billion, a 2% increase from the prior year. Organic net sales were also up 2%. Additionally, segment operating profit was up 21% to $259 million, which was attributed to HMM cost savings, lower supply chain costs and higher volume, and partially offset by unfavorable net price realization and mix, higher selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses.
General Mills continues to strengthen its pet portfolio, as evidenced by its recent acquisition of Whitebridge Pet Brands’ North American business.
“The jewel of this acquisition is the Tiki Cat brand, which has a strong presence in wet cat food, the fastest-growing segment within the US pet food category and an area where Blue Buffalo is underdeveloped,” Harmening explained. “Retail sales for Tiki Cat were up more than 20% over the past year, and with household penetration still below 2%, we see tremendous runway for future growth. We expect the transaction to close shortly, and we’re looking forward to welcoming the Whitebridge team to General Mills and working with them to expand our mission of loving and feeding more pets like family.”
Overall, second-quarter net sales for the company were $5.2 billion, a 2% increase year-over-year. Organic sales rose 1%. Operating profit was $1.1 billion, a 33% increase year-over-year.
For the first half of fiscal 2025, net sales remained flat compared to year-ago at $10.1 billion. The company attributed this to higher pound volume offset by unfavorable net price realization and mix. Organic sales were also flat. Operating profit was $1.9 billion, a 10% increase from year-ago.
Additionally, General Mills provided its guidance for the rest of the 2025 fiscal year. Organic net sales are still expected to range between flat and 1% with it now targeting the lower end of the range. Adjusted operating profit is now expected to be down 2% to 4%, compared to previous expectations of flat to down 2%.
“We’re encouraged by the progress we’ve made to accelerate our volume growth and improve our market share trends, driven by our continued focus on delivering remarkable experiences to consumers across the total product offering,” Harmening said. “To deliver those gains and build on them going forward, we’ve made incremental investments to bring consumers greater value amid a challenging macroeconomic backdrop. I’m confident in our teams, who are operating with agility and doing what’s right for our consumers. And I’m confident that the actions we’re taking will better position General Mills for sustained growth in fiscal 2026 and beyond.
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