by Katharina Gruber
With roots dated back to 1939, Sara Lee is a long-established American consumer-goods company, headquartered in Illinois. Well recognized brands like Senseo (coffee), Douwe Egberts (coffee, tea), Sara Lee (bakery) and Natreen (sweetener) belong to their portfolio.
The financial highlights for the financial year 2009/2010 have been:
Sales | USD 10,793 millions |
EBIT | USD 1,350 millions |
Share price (January 3rd, 2011) | USD 17.34 |
Market Capitalization | USD 11.27 billion |
Dividends | USD 0.44 per share |
Main Shareholders | AllianceBernstein, L.P. (6,5 %) |
ValueAct Holdings, L.P. (5,6 %) | |
HARRIS ASSOCIATES L.P. (5,5 %) | |
STATE STREET CORPORATION (3,9 %) | |
OAKMARK EQUITY AND INCOME FUND (3,6 %) |
Their strategy of diversification by acquisition led to a highly diversified company. Besides food and beverages, amongst others also household, body care, insecticides and laundry belonged to the conglomerate. However, during 2010 Sara Lee discontinued operations in the household and body care businesses and sold the insecticides (to Godrey), air care business (to P&G) and personal care and laundry business (to Unilever). Nowadays, Sara Lee has about 70 brands, operates in more than 40 countries and employs about 33.000 people in following five business sectors:
- North American Retail: packaged meat (hot dog, sausages, bacon, ham) and frozen bakery products (pies, cakes, desserts)
- North American Fresh Bakery: fresh bakery products (bread, buns, bagels, rolls, muffins, cakes) sold to retail and institutional customers
- North American Foodservice: meet, bakery and beverage products to foodservice customers (restaurants, hospitals, supermarkets etc.)
- International Beverage: coffee and tea products via retail channels and distributors
- International bakery: bakery and dough products to retail and foodservice customers in Europe and Australia
- Sara Lee (2010). Annual Report 2009/2010. http://www.saralee.com/sitecore/shell/Controls/Rich%20Text%20Editor/~/media/Investors/Annual%20Reports/2010/Sara%20Lee%202010%20Annual%20Report%20pdf.ashx.
- Sara Lee (2010). Company Website. http://www.saralee.com/AboutSaraLee.aspx
- Yahoo Finance (2011). Sara Lee Corporation Common Stock. http://de.finance.yahoo.com/q?s=SLE
- Reuters (2011). Profile: Sara Lee Corporation. http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/companyProfile?symbol=SLE
