General Mills

General Mills is based in Minneapolis. Cheerios is the cereal franchise, Nature Valley and Annie's sit in snacks, Old El Paso and Pillsbury in meals, and Blue Buffalo is the pet business bought to escape the slower center of the grocery store.

In the United States and Canada, Haagen-Dazs is a General Mills brand, while Nestle sells that name in other countries. Yoplait in the US is similarly a General Mills business, so the company's frozen and yogurt aisle is a North American position.

Blue Buffalo sells through Petco, Chewy, and veterinary and mass channels, against Nestle Purina and Colgate's Hill's. Cereal facings remain a fight with Kellanova's cereal brands and with Post, in a category retailers have already shrunk to make room for other center-store goods.

Cereal shelf space is shrinking, so Cheerios share is a fight inside a smaller set.

Blue Buffalo's pet-specialty placement is a different buyer from the grocery cereal buyer.

Haagen-Dazs in US grocery freezers is a General Mills slot that Nestle does not own in that country.

Pet owners who feed Blue Buffalo meet it at a pet retailer or clinic, not in the cereal aisle.

Households buying Cheerios are choosing among fewer cereal facings each time the grocer resets the aisle.