General Mills tells employees 700 to 800 job cuts are expected in U.S. and Canada

General Mills executives told employees Friday that its new layoff plans include 700 to 800 U.S. and Canada jobs and 500 to 600 international positions.

The details came out during a virtual meeting at the company Friday morning, a day after a Star Tribune report about the downsizing that started affecting employees last week.

The company's headquarters campus in Golden Valley could see as much as 20% of its 3,000 employees cut, executives said Friday.

General Mills has a global workforce of around 35,000 full-time and part-time employees.

The food maker also submitted a filing Friday morning that detailed for securities regulators and investors the expected costs of the restructuring.

"We now expect to incur charges of approximately $160 million in fiscal 2021, primarily reflecting severance expenses," General Mills said in the filing. "We expect these actions to be completed by the end of fiscal 2023 with a total cost of approximately $170 million to $220 million, of which approximately $130 million to $180 million will be cash."

The company's fiscal year runs from June 1 to May 30. Its fiscal 2021 just ended and the immediate restructuring charge is likely to appear in the company's fourth-quarter results, which will be announced later this month.

It has been five years since the last sizable round of layoffs swept through General Mills. The company eliminated more than 5,000 positions between 2014 and 2016 during a time when austere cost-cutting initiatives were en vogue across the packaged foods industry.

The company is coming off one of its best sales years ever, bolstered by the at-home lifestyles that resulted from the pandemic. Consumers were cooped up, cooking at home and looking for convenient, quick meals.

Executives acknowledge the surge is now waning and the post-pandemic world will likely mean a return to the slow-growth environment that's more typical for the company. But they said they aren't afraid of margin pressure and told investors the restructuring is related to broader changes, such as the growing importance of e-commerce.