General Mills sees boost in cereal sales for Q1

CHICAGO General Mills has reported booming first-quarter earnings, with a strong leader in sales of cereal. The company attributed its strong sales to an increase in people eating breakfast at home to save money, and General Mills’ successful cereal marketing strategies.

The maker of Cheerios, Lucky Charms, Trix and Wheaties, has said that increased efforts to market its breakfast cereal brands in the first quarter have paid off. Even though General Mills saw a slight decrease in its overall net earnings, due to drop in worth of some of the company’s commodity positions (down 4 percent to $279 million), not including those commodities, other total net earnings increased by 19 percent. Furthermore, the company reported that sales in the United States were up by 13 percent.

Reports showed that General Mills increased its advertising spending in the first quarter ended Aug. 24 by 17 percent. This increase came in addition to an 11 percent increase at the same time last year.