Let R be the Grothendieck ring of complex smooth finite-length representations of the groups {GL n (F )} ∞ n=0 (F a fixed p-adic field) taken together, with multiplication defined in the sense of parabolic induction. We study the problem of the decomposition of a product of irreducible representations in R.We introduce a width invariant for elements of the ring. By showing that the invariant gives an increasing ring filtration, we obtain a necessary condition on irreducible factors of a given product. Irreducible representations of width 1 form the previously studied class of ladder representations.We later focus on the case of a product of two ladder representations, for which we establish that all irreducible factors appear with multiplicity one.Finally, we conjecture a general rule for the composition series of a product of two ladder representations and prove its validity for cases in which the irreducible factors correspond to smooth Schubert varieties.