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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 countries. Its international operations were headquartered in Utrecht, The
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. While no longer operated independently, as of 2020, Sara Lee still exists as a current brand name under the auspices of holding company Kohlberg & Company, making frozen cakes, etc. at its present facility in Illinois, United States. 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". 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 Sara Lee name would continue to be used on bakery and certain deli products distributed by Hillshire Brands), the other for international beverage and bakery businesses named D.E Master Blenders 1753.


History

In 1935, Charles Lubin and his brother-in-law, Arthur Gordon, bought a small chain of
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
neighborhood bakeries called Community Bake Shops. Working together, the businessmen expanded their original three stores into a chain of seven bakeries.https://www.nytimes.com/1988/07/17/obituaries/charles-w-lubin-84-sara-lee-s-founder.html "Charles W. Lubin, 84, Sara Lee's Founder"], ''The New York Times'', via Associated Press, July 17, 1988 Lubin wanted to expand the business. He named a cream cheesecake after his eight-year-old daughter, Sara Lee Lubin, and changed the name of the business to ''Kitchens of Sara Lee''. In 1956, the Consolidated Foods Corporation bought Kitchens of Sara Lee, and it became one of the company's best-known brand names. In 1985, the name Sara Lee Corporation was adopted for the corporation as a whole. 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, Consolidated Foods 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 1986, Sara Lee bought the manufacturing and mail order operations of Wolferman's, a maker of English muffins, that dated back to 1888. In February 1988, Sara Lee agreed to the purchase of the 84-year-old Adams-Millis Corporation of
High Point, North Carolina High Point is a city in the Piedmont Triad region of the U.S. state of North Carolina. Most of the city is in Guilford County, with parts extending into Randolph, Davidson, and Forsyth counties. High Point is North Carolina's only city tha ...
, the largest private label sock and stocking manufacturer in the United States, with 3000 employees and 1987 sales of nearly $200 million. On June 25, 2001, Sara Lee Corp pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and agreed to pay $4.4 million for selling tainted meat that was 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 (S). 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 Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line w ...
, 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. 2005 also saw the debut 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 Hanesbrands Inc. is an American multinational clothing company based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It employs 65,300 people internationally. On September 6, 2006, the company and several brands were spun off by the Sara Lee Corporation. Ha ...
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 became 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 campus at the company's headquarters in Downers Grove. On September 25, 2009, Sara Lee announced it accepted a binding offer by
Unilever Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy dri ...
for €1.275 billion to sell its global body care and European detergents business. The transaction was approved by EU regulators in November of the following year. On November 9, 2010, Sara Lee said that by selling its North American Fresh Bakery unit to
Grupo Bimbo Grupo Bimbo, S.A.B. de C.V. (also known simply as Bimbo) is a Mexican multinational company with a presence in over 33 countries located in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa. It has an annual sales volume of 15 billion dollars and is currentl ...
, it could grow in other areas. The $959 million deal gave Sara Lee the right to continue using the Sara Lee name on frozen desserts and meat products. Grupo Bimbo was to use the Sara Lee name for fresh-baked products around the world except for
Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...
,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
and
New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...
. The deal also gave Grupo Bimbo 41 baking plants, and the regional brands Grandma Sycamore's, Heiner's and Rainbo. On January 28, 2011, Sara Lee announced the company would be split into two units. The company said its North American operations (including Jimmy Dean, Ball Park and Hillshire Farm) would take the Hillshire Brands corporate name, while the international beverage and bakery businesses (including Douwe Egberts, Senseo, Pickwick, Maison du Café, L'OR, Café Pilão, and Marcilla) 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 could not "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 suffered a
stroke A stroke is a disease, medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemorr ...
, became the new CEO, and Jan Bennink director and chairman. The split was completed on July 4, 2012. The successor company, Hillshire Brands, re-located its headquarters from Downers Grove to Chicago in 2012. In 2014, Hillshire, along with the Sara Lee operations, was acquired by Tyson Foods. On June 1, 2018, Tyson announced that it would sell the Sara Lee, Van's, Chef Pierre and Bistro Collection brands to Kohlberg & Company. The sale was completed on August 1, forming Sara Lee Frozen Bakery, which will be based in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois.


Company


Brands

;Food * Ball Park Franks: hot dogs * Bryan: meats *
Bryan Foods Bryan Foods is an American meat company founded in 1936 by John H. Bryan, Sr and W.B. Bryan in West Point, Mississippi. Information The company was acquired in 1968 by Sara Lee Corporation, now Hillshire Brands which was later acquired by Tyson ...
: meats * CroustiPâte: bakery, European market * Deli d'Italia: meats * Deli Perfect: meats * Emeril: meats * Galileo: salame, meats (east coast) * Gallo Salame: meats (San Francisco, west coast) * Green Hill: sausage *
Hillshire Farm Hillshire Farm is an American brand of meat products marketed and owned by Hillshire Brands. The company was founded in 1934, and was purchased by Sara Lee Corporation in 1971. Friedrich (Fritz) Bernegger, (February 2, 1904 – April 30, 1988) ...
: meats *
Jimmy Dean Jimmy Ray Dean (August 10, 1928 – June 13, 2010) was an American country music singer, television host, actor and businessman. He was the creator of the Jimmy Dean sausage brand as well as the spokesman for its TV commercials. He became ...
: pork sausages and meat products *
Kahn's Kahn's is an American meat processing and distribution company established in Cincinnati, Ohio. History Originally from Albersweiler in Germany's Rhenish Palatinate, 45-year-old Elias Kahn immigrated to Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, in 18 ...
: meats * King Cotton: meats * Merrild: Coffee * Mr. Turkey * Ortiz: bakery * R.B. Rice: meats * Rainbo: bakery * Rudy's Farm: pork sausage and breakfast sandwiches * Sara Lee: bakery, condiments, deli cheese, deli meats and frozen sweets * State Fair: corn dogs * West Virginia Brand: meats ;Beverages * Butter-Nut Cappuccino: * Bravo: * Caboclo: *
Café Continental ''Café Continental'' is a British television variety show on the BBC Television Service from 1947 to 1953. Broadcast live from the BBC's studios at Alexandra Palace, the programme opened with a "Maître d'hôtel" known as Pere Auguste, who we ...
: * Café Damasco * Café do Ponto * Café Pilão * Cafitesse * Chat Noir * Cain's Coffee *
Douwe Egberts Douwe Egberts is a Dutch brand of coffee which is majority-owned by JDE Peet's. It was founded in Joure, Netherlands, by Egbert Douwes in 1753 as De Witte Os ("The White Ox"), a general grocery shop. The company later started dealing specificall ...
: coffee, tea * Harris * Hornimans * Jacqmotte * Java Coast * Kanis & Gunnink * Kayo * Laurentis * Maison du Café * Marcilla * Maryland Club * Merrild * Moccona * Natreen * Natrena * Paradise * Piazza d'Oro * Pickwick: tea * Prima * Seleto *
Senseo Senseo is a registered trademark for a coffee brewing system from Dutch companies Philips and Douwe Egberts. The system is known for the coffee pods (called pads in some countries) it uses to brew the coffee. History The system was first intr ...
: coffee machine and coffee pods * Soley * Steamers * Suntipt * Van Nelle


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 Playtex is an American brand name for undergarments, baby products, gloves, feminine hygiene products, and sunscreen. The brand began in 1947 when International Latex Corporation (ILC) created a division named Playtex to produce and sell latex p ...
, Wonderbra, Lovable, Abanderado, Nur Die, Unno and Bellinda. Sara Lee Corporation announced on Sept 28, 2009, that it had received a binding offer for its Global Body Care and European Detergents to
Unilever Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy dri ...
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 ($230 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. In 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 Grupo Bimbo, S.A.B. de C.V. (also known simply as Bimbo) is a Mexican multinational company with a presence in over 33 countries located in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa. It has an annual sales volume of 15 billion dollars and is currentl ...
. In 2012, Hillshire Brands sold its Australian bakery operations to
McCain Foods McCain may refer to: * McCain (surname), a surname (includes a list of persons and characters) Companies * McCain Foods Limited, a producer of frozen foods * McCain, Inc., privately held American manufacturing company headquartered in Vista ...
.


Discontinued

On November 19, 2008, Sara Lee Corporation, which had acquired "the No. 2 kosher hot dog brand" in 1993, announced that it would close its
kosher (also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, yi, כּשר), fro ...
hot dog and meat processing facility in
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
, 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. As of early 2019, certain Sara Lee bread and other baked goods products, which had dropped some kosher certifications in 2017, restored them.


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 California 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.


See also

*
List of Illinois companies This is a list of Illinois companies which includes notable companies that are headquartered in Illinois, or were previously headquartered in Illinois. In general, this list does not include companies headquartered in one of the municipalities o ...
*
HanesBrands Hanesbrands Inc. is an American multinational clothing company based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It employs 65,300 people internationally. On September 6, 2006, the company and several brands were spun off by the Sara Lee Corporation. Ha ...
, a former subsidiary of Sara Lee


References


External links


HanesBrands.com Company Site



Ambi Pur Brand website

Cruz+Verde Insecticides website
{{Authority control Food product brands Food manufacturers of the United States Defunct companies based in Chicago Defunct companies based in Illinois American companies established in 1939 Food and drink companies established in 1939 Food and drink companies disestablished in 2012 1939 establishments in Illinois 2012 disestablishments in Illinois Companies based in DuPage County, Illinois Downers Grove, Illinois United States National Medal of Arts recipients Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange Grupo Bimbo brands American brands