General Mills is redesigning its plant and distribution network as the biggest single piece of a plan to cut $3 billion in costs by fiscal 2030, executives said on the company’s fiscal 2026 earnings call. The network is still in the design phase, and savings from it are not expected until fiscal 2028.
The plan: The company expects to deliver $3 billion in savings between fiscal 2027 and fiscal 2030, with $750 million targeted in fiscal 2027. The plan is split into two parts:
About $2 billion from Holistic Margin Management, its standing productivity program, which the company said is worth at least 4% of its cost of goods sold each year
About $1 billion from an enterprise transformation program and other efficiency work. The network redesign is the biggest single piece of that, executives said
The network: COO Dana McNabb, who now runs global operations, said the current network “was built for a different operating environment.” The company said the new network needs to:
Support faster product launches
Handle more packaging flexibility
Serve fast-growing channels like e-commerce
Match capacity to future volumes, which it expects to run below what the network was built for
General Mills hasn’t named any plants or distribution centers. It said the design is still being finalised and it will share specifics later.
The proof: Most of the near-term savings will come from HMM, which the company said has been worth at least 4% of cost of goods sold every year for years. The network redesign hasn’t produced anything yet. General Mills said it has saved about $40 million so far from AI-driven manufacturing, and that a logistics system it calls Project ELF cut order-planning time from 18 hours to under 30 minutes, according to Constellation Research. In fiscal 2026, adjusted operating profit fell 16% and gross margin slipped to 33.5%.
