Pet food declines for General Mills

MINNEAPOLIS — Across the board, General Mills posted mixed results for the first quarter of 2025, including for pet food. Despite drops in sales, the company’s Blue Buffalo brand continues to advance its market share. The company shared this and other updates in its financial results for the first quarter of 2025, ended Aug. 25. 

Beginning fiscal 2025, the company has renamed its pet food segment to North America Pet to reflect that pet food results outside North America are included in General Mills’ International segment. 

First-quarter net sales for North America Pet clocked in at $576 million, a decrease of 1%, which was attributed to unfavorable net price realization and mix and partially offset by higher volume. Organic net sales were also down 1%. Breaking this down by category, pet treat net sales were down mid-single digits, wet pet food net sales were down low-single digits, and dry pet food net sales remained flat. 

Segment operating profit was up 7% to $119 million, which the company attributed to holistic margin management (HMM) cost savings, lower supply chain costs and higher volume and was partially offset by unfavorable net price realization and mix, as well as input cost inflation and an increased media investment.

Despite North America Pet’s declining results, General Mills shared that the segment continues to improve its market share.

“Blue Buffalo grew share in dry feeding, which represents more than 60% of our net sales base, thanks to remarkable brand communication that drove continued strong growth on Life Protection Formula and Tastefuls,” shared Jeff Harmening, chairman and chief executive officer of General Mills, during the company’s earnings call on Sept. 18. “On Wilderness, we made progress reducing our retail sales declines in Q1, and we expect to drive sequential improvement again in Q2 as our new advertising gains traction and our grain-free varieties and smaller pack sizes benefit from incremental distribution.”

The company is planning to launch new innovations in pet treats, including seasonal offerings, to help it rebuild momentum for the rest of 2025. 

Looking to its International segment, which includes premium pet food brand Edgard & Cooper that General Mills acquired earlier this year, the company reported mixed results, though competitiveness improved. 

The company witnessed share growth in Europe and Australia, as well as improvement in Brazil. However, General Mills continues to experience challenges in China. 

Overall, General Mills’ net income fell 14% to $579.9 million, equal to $1.03 per share on the common stock, from $673.5 million, or $1.14 per share, a year earlier. Adjusted earnings per share in constant currency were $1.07, down from $1.09 in the fiscal 2024 quarter. Analysts, on average, had forecast adjusted EPS of $1.06.

Net sales in the first quarter dipped 1% to $4.85 billion from $4.9 billion a year ago, with organic net sales also decreasing 1%, General Mills said. Operating income fell 11% to $831.5 million but was down 4% to $865.3 million in constant currency.

“As we communicated on our fiscal 2024 fourth-quarter earnings call, we expected our Q1 results to be below our full-year targets, driven by challenging net sales and margin comparisons,” Harmening said. “Our results finished broadly in line with our expectations, with sequential improvement from our Q4 trends leading to pound volume finishing flat to last year and organic net sales down 1%. On the bottom line, adjusted operating profit was down 4%, and adjusted diluted earnings per share were down 2%, each in constant currency.

“Looking ahead, we have more work to do to achieve our goals, and we expect to drive further improvement in our competitiveness and our top- and bottom-line growth for the remainder of the year,” he added.

In addition to these results, General Mills also shared its outlook for fiscal year 2025, expecting volume trends to gradually improve throughout the year. Organic sales are expected between flat and 1%. Adjusted operating profit is expected to range between a 2% decrease to flat. Additionally, full-year category dollar growth is expected to be below General Mills’ long-term growth projections. 

The company plans to accelerate its organic net sales growth by providing consumers with “remarkable experiences” across its leading brands with hopes that this will improve household penetration and market share. For 2025, General Mills will hone in on new product innovations focused on taste, health, convenience and value, which it will support with brand campaigns and omnichannel visibility. 

With this in mind, the company expects to generate HMM cost savings of 4% to 5% of the cost of goods sold, allowing it to overcome anticipated input cost inflation. 

“Our top priority in fiscal 2025 is to accelerate our organic net sales growth, and we made expected progress on that goal in the first quarter along multiple fronts, with more work still ahead,” Harmening detailed. “We strengthened our core by delivering more remarkable experiences to consumers, which translated into improved volume, net sales and market share trends versus the previous quarter. We’ll continue to work to improve our competitiveness and get back to leading growth in our categories.”

Read more about corporate strategy, financial performance, mergers and acquisitions on our Business page.