Totino's and Pillsbury Products Are in Short Supply and Here's Why
Both brands could be harder to find at your local grocery store.
If you've recently noticed your local grocery store lacking in the pizza dough and pizza rolls departments, that's not just your imagination. The General Mills brands Pillsbury and Totino's have been struggling to meet demand lately due to shortages.
The products hit the hardest have been Totino's refrigerated pizza and Pillsbury pizza dough. According to its quarterly financial results published Wednesday, General Mills' service levels for refrigerated pizza and dough dropped to the 70% range in February. The brand typically likes to meet customer demand 98% to 99% of the time.
According to CFO Kofi Bruce, "acute supply shortages" are the root of the issue. Along with facing bottlenecking issues within distribution centers, which are currently on the mend as reported by CNN, General Mills now has some problems sourcing ingredients.
Jon Nudi, president of North America retail at General Mills, told CNN that in terms of refrigerated pizza and dough, "the biggest issue we're seeing is really raw material disruptions, ingredients coming into our plants to run our products."
The pizza dough drought also isn't being helped because wheat prices have gone up this year. General Mill hasn't been the only company to feel the shortage burn this year. Some of the biggest fast food chains you know and love have been cutting back on chicken nuggets, and the prices of household grocery names like Velveeta and Oscar Meyer will get more expensive.
Currently, the situation over at General Mills is improving, although empty grocery store shelves may tell a different story. According to its financial report, the company expects service levels to jump to the 80% range in the current quarter. But according to Nudi, the present, albeit improved service levels, "are still quite a bit below historical levels. We've got a lot more work to do, and we'll stay very focused on that."