General Mills offered tepid guidance for the fiscal year and warned that the front-end of the year is expected to see the most pressure, particularly for its North American retail business. The Cheerios maker is lapping tough comps from last year’s 1Q, which was boosted by pricing power that has since ebbed, so the current 1Q is expected to be “the toughest of the four quarters in the year,” CEO Jeff Harmening says on a call with analysts. “I would expect gradual improvement as we look at our sales and profitability over the course of the year,” he says.