Company Led by Steve Sanger '68 Provides Window Into America's Changing Habits

July 8, 2007

July 8, 2007, Greencastle, Ind. - "We really have a diverse profit base," says General Mills chairman and CEO Steve Sanger, a 1968 graduate of DePauw University. He is quoted in a Minneapolis Star Tribune story which begins, "Buried beneath numbers, General Mills financial results often are a study in human behavior. The latest calculus, in results released last week: Americans love convenience, increasingly hate to cook and are probably eating as much cereal as they are ever going to eat."

Matt McKinney writes, "Breakfast cereals are still a large part of General Mills' business, but the company's Big G cereal division nearly lost its crown this past year as the biggest source of domestic revenue. The challenger? The meals division, which makes packaged foods that speed up the time spent preparing dinner -- products such as Hamburger Helper, Progresso Soups, Green Giant vegetables and Old El Paso Taco Shells. For the year ending May 27, the Big G division saw a 2 percent sales increase, while meals grew 5 percent."

Read the complete article at the newspaper's Web site.

Steve Sanger was recently appointed to a board that advises the National Football League's Minnesota Vikings.

General Mills is among the nation's top 50 firms for diversity, according to a recent survey by DiversityInc magazine. Learn more about the report, which also lists Cummins Inc., led by chairman and CEO Tim Solso '69, among its fifty honorees, in this previous story.

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