Next year, General Mills Inc. plans to shut three manufacturing facilities in Missouri serving its pet and foodservice businesses.
In an 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, released Oct. 1, General Mills said it aims to close its North America Foodservice pizza crust production plant in St. Charles, Mo., as well as two North America Pet manufacturing facilities in Joplin, Mo.
The company added the Joplin plants through its acquisition of Whitebridge Pet Brands’ North American business, which closed in mid-December 2024. The pizza crust facility came via the acquisition of TNT Crust LLC – a St. Charles-based manufacturer of frozen pizza crusts for regional and national pizza chains, foodservice distributors and retailers – that closed in June 2022.
Minneapolis-based General Mills said in the 8-K report that the closings – along with the “consolidation of assets at certain of our other facilities” – are part of a “multi-year organizational initiative to increase the competitiveness of our supply chain” that the company approved on Sept. 25.
“General Mills announced it will close its two Joplin, Mo., Whitebridge Pet Brands manufacturing plants and its St. Charles, Mo., TNT pizza crust manufacturing plant, which were acquired in 2024 and 2022, respectively,” said Mollie Wulff, a spokesperson at General Mills. “Production at these locations will transition to other facilities.”
Plans call for the TNT Crust plant in St. Charles to shut down by the end of June 2026 and for production at the two Joplin facilities to end by July 2026.
“We expect the majority of Whitebridge employees will have employment opportunities at our existing North America Pet or North America Foodservice Joplin, Mo., facilities, and we will work with our TNT employees interested in exploring future employment opportunities at other General Mills locations,” Wulff said.
General Mills said in the filing that it expects to incur about $82 million in restructuring charges ($64 million in asset write-offs and $18 million in other costs, including severance) from the organizational initiative, with approximately $49 million ($43 million in asset write-offs and $6 million in other costs, including severance) to be recognized in the fiscal 2026 second quarter. The company noted it expects to complete the actions related to the initiative by the end of fiscal 2029.
By Russell Redman
Source: foodbusinessnews.net
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