Supply Side: General Mills restructures, shopper marketer relocates in Bentonville

Shopper Marketer Soapbox
Insights Opens in Bentonville
Soapbox Insights + Influence, a new shopper marketing arm of Kendal King Group, has opened a new office in downtown Bentonville’s Merchant District. The office is located at the corner of Southwest A and Eighth streets.

The company provides social and digital influencing services as well as shopper insights to the local supplier community.

“Our new office is set up and ready to make our customers a success,” Soapbox Business Development Officer Heather Wilson said in a statement. “We intentionally designed it as a casual, comfortable atmosphere to garner productivity and creativity. The space allows clients to come in and brainstorm, take a break from their days and to conduct meetings as needed. Their success is ours.”

The company held a ribbon cutting Dec. 15 and hosted the Third Thursday Soapbox Social Hour for local business professionals.

General Mills Restructures With
Plans to Cut up to 600 Jobs
Food supplier General Mills announced plans for a major restructuring on a global scale in hopes of driving better efficiency, increasing operational agility and streamlining leadership. The new structure is expected to impact between 400-600 positions worldwide.

Jeff Harmening, president and chief operating officer has assumed global operations responsibilities reporting to chairman and CEO Ken Powell. As part of the new structure, the company is eliminating the position of International chief operating officer.  In January the company’s four business groups will report directly to Harmening, each led by a group president:

• North America Retail (U.S. Retail & Canada) led by Jon Nudi

• Europe & Australia led by Bethany Quam

• Asia & Latin America led by Christina Law

• Convenience Stores & Foodservice led by Shawn O’Grady

“As we wrap up our 150th anniversary year, we are ready to take the next step in our journey to truly operate as a global company and fully resource our best ideas to drive growth,” Powell noted in a company release.

Harmening said the structural changes should help the company unlock global growth opportunities and be more agile in the process. He said the changes should help the company deliver its fiscal 2018 adjusted operating profit margin of 20%.