NYSE Magazine Spotlights 'Global Recipe' for Growth at General Mills & CEO Steve Sanger '68

May 22, 2006

May 22, 2006, Greencastle, Ind. - "Sanger acknowledges that he's been a marketer since his days promoting Motown concerts as a history major at DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind.," notes the May-June issue of NYSE, which features Stephen W. Sanger, chairman and CEO of General Mills and 1968 graduate of DePauw, on its cover. The article, titled "A Global Recipe," notes, "Acquisitions and partnerships provided an impetus. Now General Mills is targeting international markets as the biggest contributor to its growth."

In fiscal 2005, the story reports, General Mills "reported non-U.S. sales of $2.6 billion, including its proportionate share of joint-venture sales." Sanger tells the magazine, which is published by the New York Stock Exchange, "Our international growth rate can be at least double what it is in the U.S. market for the rest of the decade and beyond because our base is relatively small." General Mills acquired Pillsbury in 2002, and now "employs roughly 28,000 people globally and operates 25 manufacturing plants outside the U.S., making food items ranging from La Salteña frozen empandas in Argentina to cans of Green Giant corn in France; it sells its products in more than 100 countries," writes Jennifer Gill.

A sidebar also points out that General Mills has been cited -- by Working Mother and Fortune magazines, among others -- as an ideal workplace. "Building a championship organization means training people at an entry level," Sanger tells NYSE. "We have a commitment to learning and growing, and our employees see that... There's a great personal reward in what we do."

The entire article, which includes a number of photographs of Steve Sanger, can be accessed as a PDF at the magazine's Web site.

Sanger received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from his alma mater in May 2004 and the Diversity CEO Leadership Award in October of that year. Read more in this previous article.

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