General
Mills is selling its Green Giant and Le Sueur vegetable businesses to B&G Foods
Inc. for about $765 million cash.
It wrote
off $260 million in the fourth quarter to reflect declining value for Green
Giant.
The company
said at the time that the frozen foods sales have been declining and that
people also seemed to be shifting to traditional "blocks" of frozen
vegetables, which cost less than the vegetable blends and packages with sauces
that Green Giant makes.
General
Mills is concentrating on cereal, yogurt, organic and natural-food products.
General
Mills will continue to run Green Giant's European business and certain other
export markets under license from B&G Foods, but it's cutting free its
Green Giant and Le Sueur businesses in the U.S., Canada and some other markets.
General
Mills plans to use the cash to pay off debt and buy back stock.
B&G
Foods CEO Robert Cantwell said he expects to find more opportunities to build
on this first foray into the frozen food business.