The Sara Lee Corporation was an American consumer-goods company based in Downers Grove, Illinois.
It had operations in more than 40 countries and sold its products in over 180 nations
worldwide. Its international operations were headquartered in Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Sara Lee is also the brand name of a number of frozen and packaged foods, often known
for the long-running slogan "Everybody doesn't like something, but nobody doesn't like Sara
Lee," often incorrectly reported as "Nobody does it like Sara Lee."
While the company traced its lineage to 1939, when Nathan Cummings acquired C. D. Kenny
Company, a wholesale distributor of sugar, coffee, and tea in Baltimore, the Sara Lee
Corporation was actually the descendant of a Chicago grocery store called Sprague, Warner
& Company. This enterprise, which started on State Street in Chicago, was founded during
the Civil War by Albert A. Sprague and Ezra J. Warner. By 1909, Sprague, Warner & Company
was one of the leading wholesale grocery companies in the United States, famous for house brands
such as Richelieu, Ferndell, and Batavia. In 1942, this company was acquired by the
Canadian-born Cummings. The new Chicago-based company, at first called Sprague Warner–Kenny
Corp., ranked as the largest grocery wholesaler in the United States. Annual sales grew from
about $20 million in 1942 to $120 million by 1946. After changing its name in 1945 to
Consolidated Grocers, Cummings’s company became the Consolidated Foods Corporation
in 1953. In 1956, the company bought a company known
as Kitchens of Sara Lee, which became one of the company's best-known brand names. Management
adopted the brand name as the name of the corporation as a whole in 1985. As of 2005,
Sara Lee Corporation had operations in more than 40 countries; sold food, beverage, and
household products in over 180 countries; and had some 137,000 employees worldwide.
On July 4, 2012, Sara Lee Corporation was split into two companies—one for North American
operations which would be renamed Hillshire Brands, the other for international beverage
and bakery businesses named D.E Master Blenders 1753. A Chicago based music group called The
Independents named a song Sara Lee in 1973. One of the members is the brother of Rev.
Jesse Jackson.
History Prior to 1985, The Sara Lee Corporation was
called Consolidated Foods, of which Sara Lee was the best known brand. Consolidated Foods
had bought a Chicago bakery chain called Kitchens of Sara Lee in 1956 from Charles Lubin. Lubin
had named his bakeries after his daughter, Sara Lee. She was born in 1941, and now goes
by her married name, Sara Lee Schupf. In 1986, Sara Lee bought the manufacturing
and mail order operations of Wolferman's, a maker of English muffins, that dated back
to 1888. On June 25, 2001, Sara Lee Corp pled guilty
to a misdemeanor and agrees to pay $4.4 million for selling tainted meat blamed for at least
15 deaths and six miscarriages in 1998; The agreement stressed that Sara Lee's Bil Mar
Foods division did not knowingly distribute the tainted meat. On August 7, 2001, Sara
Lee Corp cleared the last remaining regulatory hurdle in its purchase of Earthgrains Co,
receiving approval from the European Commission. Brenda C. Barnes joined Sara Lee Corporation
in July 2004 as the President and Chief Operating Officer. Then in February 2005, Barnes was
named President and Chief Executive Officer, and the corporation announced it would move
its headquarters from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Downers Grove, Illinois, which housed the
company’s North American operating businesses and the majority of Sara Lee’s corporate
staff. Also in February 2005, the company began executing
a multi-year plan to transform Sara Lee into a company focused on its food, beverage, and
household and body care businesses around the world. To support that focus, Sara Lee
announced plans to dispose of approximately 40 percent of the company’s revenues, including
its apparel, European packaged meats, US retail coffee and direct selling businesses. On December
22, 2005, Sara Lee Corporation was to delist from Euronext Amsterdam and Euronext Paris
stock exchanges, as well as the Swiss Exchange. The company said it was taking the voluntary
step due to low trading volumes on those exchanges. In addition, as part of the transformation,
Sara Lee organized its operation around its customers, consumers and geographies to better
serve the ever-changing global marketplace. 2005 also saw the début of Sara Lee Soft
& Smooth Made with Whole Grain White Bread. In October, Barnes succeeded C. Steven McMillan
as chairman. The year ended with the sale of the direct selling business to Tupperware.
In 2006, Sara Lee announced a new company wide campaign: "the joy of eating." The campaign
was part of a restructuring at Sara Lee. 2006 featured the divestiture of Sara Lee's
European meats and European branded apparel businesses. In addition, the corporation spun
off to its shareholders the Branded Apparel, Americas/Asia, business, into a separate,
publicly traded company called HanesBrands Inc.
Including the spin-off, Sara Lee raised more than $3.7 billion in proceeds as part of the
company’s transformation plan. In addition to the monetary benefits, the company is now
tightly focused on its core businesses—food, beverage, and household and body care. In
2008, Sara Lee sold off its Direct Store Delivery foodservice coffee business to Farmer Brothers
for a reported $45 million. By 2009, Sara Lee was pursuing the sale of
its Household and Body Care business in their continuing effort to focus on core business.
In April, Sara Lee launched a state-of-the-art research and development center named The
Kitchens of Sara Lee, a 120,000-square-foot campus at the company’s headquarters in
Downers Grove, Ill. On 25 September 2009, Sara Lee announced it
accepted a binding offer by Unilever for €1.275 billion to sell its global body care and European
detergents business. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and consultation with
European employee works councils. On 9 November 2010, Sara Lee said that by
selling its North American Fresh Bakery unit to Grupo Bimbo, it could grow in other areas.
The $959 million deal gives Sara Lee the right to continue using the Sara Lee name on frozen
desserts and meat products. Grupo Bimbo will use the Sara Lee name for fresh-baked products
around the world except for Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand. The deal also means
Grupo Bimbo gets 41 plants and the regional brands Grandma Sycamore's, Heiner's and Rainbo.
On 28 January 2011, Sara Lee announced the company would be split into two units. The
company said its North American operations would take the Hillshire Brands corporate
name, while the international beverage and bakery businesses would constitute a separate
unit named D.E Master Blenders 1753. Some analysts claimed splitting the business into
two units would make a takeover more likely. Stockholders would have equal shares in both
companies. In the same month, Sara Lee received noted media attention regarding their strategy
to "refocus on the core" to revamp the company. In a Forbes magazine column, Adam Hartung
stated Sara Lee couldn’t "cost-cut, refocus or re-align a business to success with no
new products and no growth plan." Also, Marcel Smits, interim CEO since Barnes left due to
a stroke, became the new CEO, and Jan Bennink director and chairman. The split was completed
on July 4, 2012. The successor company, Hillshire Brands, moved
its headquarters from Downers Grove to Chicago in 2012.
Company Governance
Former members of the board of directors of Sara Lee are: Christopher B. Begley, Crandall
Bowles, Virgis W. Colbert, James S. Crown, Laurette T. Koellner, Dr. John McAdam, Sir
Ian Prosser, Rozanne L. Ridgway, Norman R. Sorensen, Jeffrey W. Ubben, Cees J.A. van
Lede, Jonathan Ward. Brands
Food Beverages
Divested Sara Lee Corporation announced in 2006 that
it had completed the sale of its branded apparel business in Europe to an affiliate of Sun
Capital Partners, Inc. Such brands included Dim, Playtex, Wonderbra, Lovable, Abanderado,
Nur Die, Unno, Bellinda. Sara Lee Corporation announced on Sept 28th, 2009, that it had
received a binding offer for its Global Body Care and European Detergents to Unilever for
€1.275 billion. On June 1, 2010 Sara Lee announced it had completed the sale of its
51 percent stake in its Godrej Sara Lee joint venture to Godrej Consumer Products Ltd. for
a total consideration of €185 million. On June 15, 2010, the company announced that
it had received a binding offer of $153.5 million for its remaining insecticides business.
The offer is dependent on European Union antitrust approval; the decision is due May 2, 2011.
On July 5, 2010, Sara Lee completed the sale of its Ambi Pur air care business to Procter
& Gamble for €320 million. On April 4, 2011, Sara Lee completed the sale of its Kiwi shoe
care business to SC Johnson for €245 million. On 2010, Sara Lee completed the sale of White
King and Janola brands to Symex for €38 million. In addition, Sara Lee announced the
pending sale of its non-Indian insecticides business to SC Johnson for €153.5 million.
In 2010, Sara Lee divested its North American fresh bakery business to Grupo Bimbo.
In 2012, Hillshire Brands sold its Australian bakery operations to McCain Foods.
Discontinued On November 19, 2008, Sara Lee Corporation
announced that it would close its kosher hot dog and meat processing facility in Chicago,
on or before January 30, 2009. Sara Lee decided to exit the kosher meat business and discontinue
processing and distributing products made under all of its kosher meat brands, including:
Best’s Kosher, Sinai Kosher, Shofar and Wilno.
Consumer Relations Throughout 2012, Sara Lee contributed $343,600
to a $46 million political campaign known as "The Coalition Against The Costly Food
Labeling Proposition, sponsored by Farmers and Food Producers" This organization was
set up to oppose a citizen's initiative, known as Proposition 37, demanding mandatory labeling
of foods containing genetically modified ingredients. The Sara Lee Foundation
The Sara Lee Foundation was founded in 1981 to formalize Sara Lee's dedication to community
services. By giving cash contributions, product donations, and volunteers, the foundation
has grown touching millions of lives, helping those in need and fostering diverse artistic
expression. See also
List of Illinois companies HanesBrands, a former subsidiary of Sara Lee
References
External links HanesBrands.com Company Site
Nathan Cummings Founder Ambi Pur Brand website
Cruz+Verde Insecticides website