General Mills Conference Call Highlights

General Mills (NYSE: GIS) reported its first quarter earnings on Wednesday. Shares of the company are down 5%. Below are some key highlights and takeaways from its conference call. Operations and General Remarks:• Net sales totaled $4.3 billion.• Segment operating profit totaled $690 million, 15% below prior-year due to results in our U.S. Retail segment.• Net earnings declined 25% to $345 million and diluted earnings per share were $0.55 as reported. International Segments and Growth:• U.S. Retail net sales for the first quarter were 5% below last year, reflecting weak industry trends, along with higher trade merchandising expense for us in this period. • Our pound volume was down 2%, primarily driven by declines in meals and baking products. • We launched 145 new products across U.S. Retail, almost 20% above last year's number.• It's important to note, however, that the increased trade expense in the quarter does not reflect greater depth of discount. • In total, these six platforms; yogurt, frozen breakfast, snacks, biscuits, cereal and mixes, posted combined net sales growth of 4%. • Sales in Canada declined 2%.• Latin American sales increased 20%, driven by another quarter of strong double-digit growth in Brazil.• In the Asia-Pacific region, sales increased 4% led by Greater China and Korea. • And sales for our Europe region also increased 4% with good growth in both the UK and France.• International profit was 16% above year-ago levels and up 17% on a constant currency basis. And Convenience Stores and Foodservice profit increased a robust 18%.Guidance:• We expect to incur approximately $15 million of net expense related to these actions and we booked $14 million of this amount in restructuring charges in the first quarter. • All of our 2015 restructuring charges will be excluded from adjusted diluted EPS.• The effective tax rate for the quarter was 31.8% as reported.• We invested $149 million in fixed assets and we returned more than $700 million to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases.• We're also targeting mid single-digit growth in constant currency segment operating profit. • We plan to reinvest the benefits of the 53rd week in growth driving activities. • On the bottom line, we expect adjusted diluted EPS to grow at a high single-digit rate in constant currency from the base of $2.82 per share achieved in fiscal 2014.