General Mills to Build a New Cereal Factory

General Mills’ board has approved plans to construct a new breakfast cereal manufacturing plant in Albuquerque, N.M.

The plant will be General Mills’ eighth major domestic packaged foods plant and the company’s first in the Southwest.

Site preparation for the plant was expected to begin late this year, subject to completion of real estate transactions, issuance of industrial revenue bonds, an environmental audit and other conditions.

The plant will be part of General Mills’ plans to invest $1.65 billion in new fixed assets during the next three years to support continued growth in the country’s packaged consumer foods and restaurant businesses.

During the past decade, the company’s dollar share of the $7-billion ready-to-eat breakfast cereal market has increased by five percentage points to a record 27%.

General Mills had sales of $6.5 billion in the fiscal year ending in May, with consumer packaged foods accounting for about two thirds of those sales.

General Mills employs about 100,000 people worldwide.