Annie's Homegrown doubles products under General Mills ownership

Annie's Homegrown natural foods more than doubled the number of new products it released since General Mills bought the company last year.

General Mills acquired Annie's for an estimated $820 million in late 2014. General Mills CEO Ken Powell said the natural foods company had previously shown interest in expanding into soups, yogurt and other products. But that the company didn't have the capacity before General Mills purchased it.

"With General Mills being this big company, lots of R&D resources, and manufacturing, we partner with them and all of a sudden they can get into these categories on their terms," Powell said.

Powell said General Mills has learned not to interfere when it buys a successful business like Annie's. He said it can be difficult for a large company like General Mills to create successful natural foods products from scratch.

Powell joined MPR News with Tom Weber to discuss the future of General Mills. Listen to the audio above for the full interview.