Two of Our Favorite General Mills Brands Could Be Leaving Town

Two of the most familiar brands under the umbrella of Hannibal's largest manufacturer may be up for sale.

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In an article on bloomberg.com Thursday, it was reported that General Mills could be considering selling its Progresso Soup and Hamburger Helper brands.

If you're a regular listener, Progresso has been "front of mind" this week as a mainstay in the fund raising effort of the United Way of the Mark Twain Area, with cases and cases of soup still in our back room waiting to be picked up.

Both the Progresso and Hamburger Helper brands have graced the pantry of the Smith household for as long as I can remember (although my son, who's a pretty good cook, earnestly believes that anything with the word "helper" in it has no place in the kitchen).

The article said that General Mills is working with Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. as it explores selling a portfolio of brands, including Progresso and Helper.

Experts say the price tag for the two brands could be as much as $3 billion dollars.

Everything we could find indicate this is something that is just in the talking stage right now, although we also found that there are some that think General Mills could want to raise money to get into more health minded products.

The Progresso brand has been around since the early 1900's, and for the last several years has been made exclusively at the General Mills facility in Hannibal.

Hamburger Helper started in the early 70s, and both brands became a part of General Mills when they took over Pillsbury twenty years ago.