BOSTON – From Greek yogurt to gluten-free cereal, on-trend innovation across five key platforms poises General Mills, Inc. for growth in the coming year.

During a Sept. 3 presentation at the Barclays Back-to-School Conference in Boston, the Minneapolis-based company highlighted product news across its ready-to-eat cereal, yogurt, convenient meals, snacks and super-premium ice cream categories.

“These five global categories account for more than 70% of our worldwide sales, including our share of joint venture revenues,” said Don Mulligan, executive vice-president and chief financial officer. “We have strong product news innovation on each of these businesses right now.”

Gluten-free Vanilla Chex, a reformulated Yoplait Greek line, high-protein Nature Valley snacks and revamped Helper dry dinners lead the pack of new launches reflecting current consumer trends.

“Products and marketing innovation is the fuel that creates category growth,” Mr. Mulligan said. “We have a robust pipeline for doing our part to drive category growth in 2014, with more than 200 new items being introduced worldwide in the first half of the year alone. We’re just starting to ramp up the distribution and brand-building support on many of these items, so we expect our 2014 new product lineup to increasingly contribute to retail sales growth over the balance of the year.”

Other recent initiatives have included strategic acquisitions in emerging and developing markets, as well as efforts to improve sustainability, food safety and nutrition.

Click here for a slideshow of insights into General Mills’ business strategy.