General Mills is planning to launch Annie’s branded organic cereals, in order to strengthen its domestic cereal business.
The cereal maker is planning to offer three USDA-certified organic cereals under the brand. The company claims that the latest offerings would be free of artificial flavours, synthetic colours and preservatives.
The move aims to serve dichotomous purpose. General Mills is expanding the Annie's brand, which originally included macaroni and cheese and snack boxes, to other food segments such as soup and yogurt.
Annie's new product lines intend to leverage General Mills' core production capabilities.
Additionally, it plans to remove artificial ingredients from its cereal offerings including Cheerios and Lucky Charms brands, in order to enhance their appeal to health-conscious consumers.
General Mills COO Jeffrey Harmening said: "More than half of US consumers are telling us they're trying to avoid artificial colors and flavors and we've responded by announcing that our entire cereal line will have no artificial colors, no artificial flavors and no high fructose corn syrup."
This is not the first time that Annie's tried to introduce cereal. According to Annie's president John Foraker, Annie's introduced six varieties of cereals in 2007, including Cocoa & Vanilla Bunnies, Honey Bunnies, Cinna Bunnies and more, However, it discontinued the line in 2013.
John Foraker said: "When we originally introduced cereal, consumers were thrilled about the idea."
"We were such a small company at the time, we just didn't have the scale or manufacturing capabilities to provide consumers with the quality, taste or price points we felt they deserved. We decided to discontinue the original line back in 2012."
In October 2014, General Mills had acquired Annie's for approximately $821m. General Mills and Annie's subsequently completed the acquisition by merging a subsidiary of General Mills with and into Annie's, with Annie's surviving the merger as a wholly-owned subsidiary of General Mills.
More recently, the food company effectuated certain changes in its cereal business by coming up with gluten-free variants. Last month, the company launched seven updated cereal recipes as part of its commitment to eliminate artificial flavours and colours in all of its cereals by the end of 2017.
The first round of the new cereal recipes included Trix, Reese's Puffs, Cocoa Puffs, Golden Grahams, Chocolate Cheerios, Frosted Cheerios and Fruity Cheerios.
These seven varieties feature no high fructose corn syrup, no artificial flavours, and colours from artificial sources on the label of each box, the company claims.
The cereals now include fruit and vegetable juices, spice extracts such as turmeric and annatto to obtain a mix of colours such as red, yellow, orange and purple in the company's Trix and Fruity Cheerios. A natural vanilla flavor will be introduced in Reese' Puffs and Golden Grahams.
General Mills also planned to launch a new oatmeal-based variant in its Plenti yogurt line in the US to target consumers seeking healthier breakfast options.
