(Reuters) – General Mills Inc raised its full-year sales forecast on Tuesday, boosted by strong demand for the Cheerios maker’s cereals, snacks and baking products as the pandemic-induced at-home cooking boom held strong.
Consumers have continued with lockdown-induced habits of cooking and eating more at home even as they headed out to restaurants and bars after COVID-19 curbs eased, bolstering sales at packaged food makers.
General Mills also benefited from a surge in demand for pet treats as more people adopted cats and dogs last year to ease the stress of the pandemic, helping the company post a 29% increase in sales at its pet food division.
Sales at the Pillsbury dough maker’s core North America retail business rose 2% in the second quarter ended Nov. 28.
The company now expects organic net sales to rise between 4% and 5% in fiscal 2022. It had earlier forecast annual organic sales to be towards the higher end of a 1% to 3% decline range.
Net sales rose to $5.02 billion in the reported quarter , from $4.72 billion a year earlier, beating estimates $4.84 billion, according to Refinitiv IBES.
(Reporting by Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)
