General Mills, Inc.

Target is bringing on talent from Walmart and General Mills to accelerate its food and beverage strategy.     Mark Kenny will join Target as VP divisional, meat and fresh prepared food where he will oversee the meat, seafood, deli, bakery and prepared food categories. Kenny joins Target from Walmart, where he most recently was the senior director of private brands, deli and bakery.    

Walmart’s e-commerce arm is shaking up its customer engagement efforts.   Jet.com is adopting product sampling to forge stronger relationships with its online shoppers. Though a partnership with BrandShare, the online retailer will deliver 300,000 premium product samples and exclusive offers each month inside e-commerce packages. BrandShare is a long-time partner of Jet’s parent company, Walmart.   

Consumer packaged goods companies eager to keep pace with shoppers’ desire for product ingredient transparency have embraced a major initiative branded as SmartLabel.

SmartLabel is the name given to an initiative spearheaded by the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) that is designed to give consumers easy access to detailed information on ingredients and hundreds of other product attributes, such as whether food items contain ingredients from genetically modified sources.

Now that its service has gained traction with retailers, on-demand delivery provider Instacart has created a new promotional platform for brands to connect with shoppers.

Retailers who sell food have seen firsthand the huge shift in consumer behavior toward natural, organic, gluten free and non-GMO products. Offering a view of what’s next in the grocery aisle this week was leading food supplier General Mills.

As part of an investor day to unveil growth strategies, the $18.8 billion company shared details about a broad range of new product introductions that debut this summer and are expected to drive retail sales.

Atlanta - Honey Baked Ham is consolidating three regionalized operating divisions, currently based in Georgia, Michigan and Ohio, and has also named two new top executives. The combined organization, The Honey Baked Ham Company LLC, will be headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia and will serve customers online and at more than 400 stores in 40 states across the U.S.

Minneapolis – Target Inc. does not want to be your father’s mass merchandiser. According to the Wall Street Journal, Target has informed established CPG companies including Campbell Soup, Kraft, General Mills and Kellogg Co. that it will promote their brands less to place more emphasis on brands that meet the changing preferences of modern consumers.

St. Louis – Panera Bread Co. has named Drew Madsen president, effective May 11. He will report to Ron Shaich, chairman and CEO, and oversee the core café business, while Shaich focuses on strategy, growth initiatives and innovation across the company.

Madsen served as president and COO of Darden Restaurants Inc. He also previously served as president of Darden's Olive Garden chain and was Olive Garden's executive VP of marketing prior to that.