Businessweek

, Golden Layers, Big Deluxe, Toaster Strudel, Toaster Scrambles, Simply, Savorings, Jus-Rol, Latina, Pasta Master, Wanchai Ferry, V.Pearl, and La Salteña. Dry Dinners and Shelf Stable and Frozen Vegetable Products: The company's trademarks in this category include Betty Crocker, Hamburger Helper, Tuna Helper, Chicken Helper, Old El Paso, Green Giant, Potato Buds, Suddenly Salad, Bac*O’s, Betty Crocker Complete Meals, Valley Selections, Simply Steam, Valley Fresh Steamers, Wanchai Ferry, Diablitos, and Parampara. Grain, Fruit, and Savory Snacks: The company's trademarks in this category include Nature Valley, Fiber One, Betty Crocker, Fruit Roll-Ups, Fruit By The Foot, Gushers, Chex Mix, Gardetto’s, Bugles, Food Should Taste Good, and Lärabar. Dessert and Baking Mixes: The company's trademarks in this category include Betty Crocker, SuperMoist, Warm Delights, Bisquick, and Gold Medal. Ice Cream and Frozen Desserts: The company's trademarks in this category include Häagen-Dazs, Secret Sensations, Cream Crisp, and Dolce. Frozen Pizza and Pizza Snacks: The company's trademarks in this category include Totino’s, Jeno’s, Pizza Rolls, Party Pizza, Pillsbury Pizza Pops, and Pillsbury Pizza Minis. The company also offers ready-to-serve soup under the Progresso trademark; and organic products under the Cascadian Farm and Muir Glen trademarks. The company's certain products are marketed under or in combination with trademarks that have been licensed from others, including Dora the Explorer, Disney Cars, and Disney Princesses for yogurt, and Dora the Explorer for cereal; Reese’s Puffs for cereal; Hershey’s chocolate for a variety of products; Weight Watchers as an endorsement for soup and frozen vegetable products; Macaroni Grill for dry and frozen dinners; Sunkist for baking products and fruit snacks; Cinnabon for refrigerated dough, frozen pastries, and baking products; Bailey’s for super-premium ice cream; and various characters and brands for fruit snacks, including Scooby Doo, Batman, Tom and Jerry, Ocean Spray, Thomas the Tank Engine, My Little Pony, Transformers, and various Warner Bros. and Nickelodeon characters The company licenses all of its cereal trademarks to CPW, its joint venture with Nestle S.A. (Nestle). Nestle similarly licenses certain of its trademarks to CPW, including the Nestle and Uncle Tobys trademarks. The company owns the Häagen-Dazs trademark and has the right to use the trademark outside of the United States and Canada. Nestle has an exclusive royalty-free license to use the Häagen-Dazs trademark in the United States and Canada on ice cream and other frozen dessert products. The company also licenses this trademark to its HDJ joint venture. The J. M. Smucker Company holds a royalty-free license to use the Pillsbury brand and the Pillsbury Doughboy character in the dessert mix and baking mix categories in the United States and under limited circumstances in Canada and Mexico. The company also licenses its Green Giant trademark to a third party for use in connection with its sale of fresh produce in the United States. It uses the Yoplait and related trademarks under license from an entity in which the company owns a 50% interest and the company further licenses these trademarks to franchisees. Research and Development The company's research and development expenditures were $245 million for the period ended May 27, 2012. Customers The company’s primary customers are grocery stores, mass merchandisers, membership stores, natural food chains, drug, dollar and discount chains, commercial and noncommercial foodservice distributors and operators, restaurants, and convenience stores. The company sells to these customers through its direct sales force. It uses broker and distribution arrangements for certain products or to serve certain types of customers. The company's major customer includes Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Seasonality In the United States, the demand for the company’s refrigerated dough, frozen baked goods, and baking products is stronger in the fourth calendar quarter. Demand for Progresso soup and Green Giant canned and frozen vegetables is higher during the fa