Company
History
Early history: from C.D.
Kenny to Consolidated Foods
Formally organized in 1939, what is now the Sara
Lee Corporation spent the next three decades under
the direction of founder Nathan Cummings. Although
he retired from active management of the company
in 1968, Cummings remained the largest stockholder
until his death in 1985, when Sara Lee bought back
1.8 million common shares from his estate.
Born in Canada in 1896, Cummings began his career
in his father's shoe store. By 1917 he had built
his own shoe manufacturing firm. Cummings's enterprise
eventually expanded into a successful importer of
general merchandise. This venture allowed him to
purchase a small biscuit and candy company, which
he later sold at a profit.
In 1939, at the age of 43, Cummings borrowed $5.2
million to buy the C.D. Kenny Company, a small wholesale
distributor of sugar, coffee, and tea established
in 1870. The Baltimore-based company represented
Cummings's first entry into U.S. markets, and he
sought to increase the number of Kenny-label products.
Cummings broadened his geographic scope in 1942
with the purchase of Sprague, Warner & Company,
a distributor of canned and packaged food nationwide.
C.D. Kenny was relocated to Chicago and renamed
Sprague Warner-Kenny Corporation. Under the established
Richelieu label, sales came to $19 million that
year, allowing Cummings to begin a significant expansion
through acquisition, a strategy the company has
pursued consistently.
After several smaller acquisitions, in 1945 Cummings
acquired Reid, Murdoch and Company, the producer
of the nationally recognized Monarch label. After
this acquisition, the C.D. Kenny Company changed
its name to the Consolidated Grocers Corporation,
and in 1946 Consolidated made its first public stock
offering, with a listing on the New York Stock Exchange.
The Monarch purchase boosted sales to $123 million
in 1946.
Smaller food companies struggled through a difficult
period in the late 1950s and early 1960s as operational
expenses and competition increased--continual development
of new products and large promotional budgets were
typically the only way to keep shelf space in supermarkets.
But small companies offered their already established
brands to a large company such as Consolidated,
saving the cost of internal development. By 1970,
Cummings had supervised the purchase of more than
90 companies by pursuing family-owned businesses
who consented to mergers.
In 1951 Consolidated consisted of more than a dozen
companies, and in 1953 sales passed $200 million.
They did not remain that high for very long, however.
Sales in 1954, the year Consolidated Grocers changed
its name to Consolidated Foods Corporation, dropped
to $133 million. Sales fell another $15 million
the following year, when after-tax profits were
only slightly greater than $1 million and earnings
per common share fell almost 40 percent.
Mid-1950s: addition of
Kitchens of Sara Lee
Cummings met these losses with further diversification.
The Kitchens of Sara Lee, a five-year-old maker
of frozen baked goods with annual sales of $9 million,
was acquired in 1956 for 164,890 shares--not Consolidated's
biggest purchase to date, but eventually a significant
one. The company had been founded by Charles Lubin,
who had named it after his daughter, and the firm's
best-selling product was Sara Lee cheesecake. A
slightly larger purchase of 34 Piggly Wiggly supermarkets
marked Consolidated's first venture into food retailing.
An even larger purchase, of the Omaha Cold Store
Company, demonstrated Consolidated's preference
for distribution and marketing operations rather
than direct-to-consumer sales.
1960s
Consolidated continued a rapid acquisition pace
into the 1960s with Shasta beverages and the Eagle
Supermarket chain in 1961. L.H. Parke Company, Michigan
Fruit Canners, and Monarch Food Ltd. of Toronto
together added $35 million in sales for 1962. The
corporation first went international in 1960 by
buying a controlling interest in a Venezuelan vinegar
company; a second foreign investment came in 1962,
with the purchase of Jonker Fris, a Dutch canner.
Although growth was rapid, analysts considered Consolidated
stock a risk because dividend increases depended
on purchases.
During the 1960s recently acquired Booth Fisheries
reported a 16 percent rise in sales volume for 1962,
up to $56.6 million. By following the industry trend
toward packaging seafood for the convenience market,
Booth Fisheries fought off fish shortages and normally
unstable prices, raising division earnings from
$2.35 per share to $3.22.
In 1966 Consolidated agreed to a Federal Trade Commission
(FTC) order to spin off its supermarket division
within three years, principally its Piggly Wiggly
and Eagle supermarket chains. This agreement came
as a surprise to analysts, because the industry
expected leniency from the FTC because of the high
cost of small-scale food production and distribution.
But Consolidated Foods President William Howlett
publicly welcomed the agreement, stating that Consolidated
no longer wished to compete at the retail level
with its other customers. Consolidated still kept
its convenience retail outlets such as Lawson Milk,
purchased in 1960.
As Cummings prepared for retirement, Consolidated
searched for a larger share of European and American
markets. New production facilities were planned
for Shasta and Sara Lee in 1964, tripling the latter's
output, and sales that year topped $600 million.
In 1966 Consolidated made two more important food
purchases: E. Kahn's Sons Company (the firm's first
meat company) and Idaho Frozen Foods.
Mid-1960s: beginning of
nonfood acquisitions
Between 1966 and 1967, Consolidated made eight of
its first nonfood acquisitions, including Oxford
Chemical Corporation, a maker of cleaning products;
Abbey Rents, a home furnishings company;Electrolux
vacuum cleaners; and the Fuller Brush Company. Consolidated
also entered the apparel industry in 1968 when it
purchased Gant shirts, and Canadelle the manufacturer
of
Wonderbra, and
also acquired several other clothing makers during
this period. Within five years, nonfood businesses
comprised 50 percent of the company's profits. William
Howlett became Cummings's successor in 1968, but
Cummings remained a director, and the largest shareholder,
until his death. Howlett left two years later because
of disagreements with the founding director. Despite
the turbulence of the decade, sales tripled and
after-tax earnings increased fivefold.
William A. Buzick, Jr., became president in 1970,
beginning a difficult decade for the corporation;
by 1980, the selling price for a common share was
almost 40 percent lower than 1970s purchase price.
Although sales continued to rise, as a result of
the diversification trend, Consolidated soon discovered
the drawbacks of the strategy as well. Consolidated's
profits rose only 4 percent from 1972 to 1973--the
year sales hit $2 billion--compared with an industry
average of 17 percent. Sales continued to rise in
1974, but earnings dropped for the first time in
19 years as nonfood business did poorly. Meantime,
Hillshire Farm, maker of packaged meats, was acquired
in 1971.
During Buzick's five-year reign, Consolidated sold
many of its food distribution businesses and production
facilities. Buzick also increased the company's
commitment to nonfood products with the purchase
of Max Klein, Inc., a Philadelphia-based clothing
company and Erdal (later Intradal), a Dutch personal
care products company.
Nonfood activity peaked in 1975 as durable goods
provided almost two-thirds of corporate profits.
The diversification was prompted in part by the
company's belief that federal restraints on the
food industry would continue. In addition, economic
constraints made Consolidated's growth goals difficult
to achieve as only a food company. Under President
Richard Nixon's economic stabilization program of
1973, for instance, Sara Lee was allowed to increase
prices on frozen baked goods only 6.35 percent;
Consolidated had requested a 7.52 percent hike.
Moving into nonfood businesses would make the corporation
less dependent on federal decisions and less vulnerable
to the antitrust suits that had impeded competitors.
Mid-1970s: start of the
John H. Bryan era
Buzick left in 1975 and John H. Bryan became CEO;
he was named chairman the following year. Bryan's
family-owned business, Bryan Brothers Packing, was
a 1968 Consolidated purchase. Bryan quickly sold
more than 50 companies, most of which were smaller
acquisitions made in the early 1970s. Fuller Brush
and four furniture companies were singled out as
problem units and divested. Earnings recovered the
following year to $77.5 million, and Consolidated's
operating margin returned to 7.6 percent.
Bryan continued to value nonfood sales, however.
For the next ten years, nonfood products continued
to make up more than 50 percent of corporate income
but only 30 percent of total sales. Purchases during
the 1980s continued the trend toward solidifying
durable goods production.
Bryan's acquisition portfolio represented a more
aggressive stance in all of its markets. Before
the 1978 purchase of Douwe Egberts, a Dutch coffee,
tea, and tobacco producer, only 11 percent of Consolidated's
income came from abroad; by 1989 it made up nearly
30 percent. In 1979 Consolidated completed a hostile
takeover of the
Hanes Corporation,
a family-owned undergarment manufacturer.
Despite difficulties--poor performance of some nonfood
companies led to earnings losses in 1974 and 1975--Consolidated's
performance excelled by the end of the 1970s. Between
1967 and 1973, sales doubled to $2 billion and total
assets topped $1 billion. These figures allowed
the company to set a goal of doubling sales volume
by 1980; the actual amount achieved exceeded $5
billion.
Bryan's initial management goals were to keep the
company diversified and decentralized, while keeping
the corporate office responsible for financial control
and strategic planning. Acquisition targets would
be brands with leading market shares in new areas
and "integrating acquisitions"--large
companies with established brands in Consolidated's
markets. Chef Pierre pies, Superior Tea and Coffee
Company, and Italian dry sausage product maker Gallo
Salame, Inc. fell into the latter category, and
were purchased in the late 1970s, building on Consolidated's
pastry, coffee and tea, and meat market shares.
Similarly, Jimmy Dean Meats was acquired in 1984.
Emerging as Sara Lee in
the mid-1980s
In 1985 Consolidated announced that it would change
its name to Sara Lee Corporation. The name was chosen
because it was the corporation's most prominent
brand name, and as a corporate name would give the
company higher visibility and make advertising efforts
more cost effective.
The first of twomajor foreign acquisitions came
in 1985 when Nicholas Kiwi Limited's foreign subsidiaries
were purchased for $330 million, in addition to
14 percent of its Australian domestic operations.
Kiwi--seller of a variety of shoe care products,
medicines, cleaners, and cosmetics--complemented
Intradal, Sara Lee's Dutch subsidiary. The food
and consumer products business of Akzo, a Dutch
conglomerate with annual sales of $720 million,
was acquired in 1987 for approximately $600 million,
the company's largest purchase ever. Another producer
of household goods, Akzo was absorbed into Douwe
Egberts and Kiwi. By mid-1987, just nine years since
its first international venture, Sara Lee was among
the largest U.S. multinationals, with foreign revenue
reaching almost $2 billion, making up 24.1 percent
of total sales, 26.8 percent of profits, and 40.5
percent of total corporate assets. Meantime, back
home, Sara Lee acquired
Coach Leatherware
in 1985 and Hygrade Food Products, maker of Ball
Park, Grillmaster, and Hygrade hot dogs, in 1989.
Although still very active in acquisitions, Bryan
also drew praise for stressing internal product
development. Return on total investment typically
decreases in the wake of large purchases, but Bryan
kept return on equity at more than 20 percent in
nearly every year since 1985. This was especially
unusual for a company whose growth was almost entirely
through acquisition--96 percent of Sara Lee's 141
entries into new businesses were through acquisition
between 1950 and 1986.
In 1987 Sara Lee acquired Knomark Ltd. and its
Esquire brand.
Bryan was responsible for easing the uncertainty
of the 1970s, shifting the company's focus to the
marketing of consumer products only. He also improved
manufacturing efficiency and product development.
In 1986 sales dropped from $8.1 billion to $7.9
billion, yet income increased $17 million. Domestic
consumer and institutional food divisions reported
the largest sales drop, as Shasta, Idaho Frozen
Foods, and Union Sugar were divested and Popsicle
was restructured and eventually divested. Bryan
also introduced lower-priced items to complement
the corporation's premium Sara Lee and
Hanes labels. Bryan
hoped, with this tactic, to improve total sales
volume as successfully as the meat division had
done in the past. In 1989 the company began the
divestiture of its foodservice operations, then
its poorest performing division.
Further acquisitions in
the early 1990s
During the early 1990s Sara Lee continued to grow
through acquisition and increased its market presence
abroad. During the first three years of the decade,
it spent more than $1.7 billion in adding a variety
of properties to the Sara Lee stable, including
Playtex undergarments;
Brylcreem; Mark Cross leather goods; hosiery companies in France (Dim S.A.),
Spain (Sans, S.A.), Italy (Filodoro), and the United Kingdom (Pretty Polly
Limited); the consumer food group of BP Nutrition; and SmithKline Beecham 's European bath and body
care business.
Perhaps most significant among these purchases was
Playtex.
Coupled with such existing holdings as
Bali, the 1991 acquisition of Playtex gave Sara
Lee a commanding presence in the intimate apparel
market in the United States, with overall market
share of more than 31 percent and market share in
some niche areas surpassing 65 percent. Although
some competitors expressed concerns about the monopolistic
nature of the combination, they made little headway
with the free marketers of the Bush administration.
Ironically, Sara Lee's spending spree within another
area--hosiery--quickly came back to haunt the company.
A combination of several factors converged to lead
to declining hosiery sales starting in late 1992.
In the midst of a recession in Europe, the newly
acquired hosiery units in France, Spain, and the
United Kingdom experienced increasing competitive
pressure. Sara Lee also erred in replacing the managers
of the firms with U.S. personnel not as familiar
with the local markets. Most important, both in
Europe and the United States, the company failed
to recognize quickly enough the trend toward more
casual attire both at the office and for social
events and, therefore, the resultant decreased demand
for formal hosiery. Because hosiery comprised 25
percent of overall apparel sales, the decrease in
hosiery sales presented a significant challenge.
In response, Sara Lee quickly moved to decrease
hosiery capacity by closing two U.S. plants as well
as a plant in France. Sara Lee's apparel division
also was realigned into a more flattened organizational
structure.
Leading the way in these efforts was newly appointed
president Cornelius Boonstra. A 20-year Sara Lee
veteran with a strong background in operations,
Boonstra provoked some disenchantment with his aggressive
cost-cutting measures, which included reducing staff
in the Chicago headquarters by 10 percent. Although
praised by Wall Street for the cuts, several senior
managers left Sara Lee soon after his appointment
and continuing friction with other executives led
to his resignation in early 1994 after only six
months in the job. No one was immediately appointed
to succeed him.
In another irony, in June 1994 Sara Lee announced
a major restructuring of its European personal products
operations, which included cuts much more severe
than those imposed by Boonstra. The company took
a $732 million charge mainly to reduce capacity
in its hosiery operations. Several more plants were
closed and more than 8,000 jobs were cut.
Rebounding from the difficult restructuring year
of 1994, Sara Lee enjoyed record sales of $17.71
billion (a 14 percent increase over 1994) and record
operating income of $1.6 billion in fiscal 1995,
with 12 Sara Lee brands racking up sales in excess
of $250 million. For the year, 40 percent of Sara
Lee's sales and 45 percent of its operating income
were generated from its operations abroad.
Major restructuring in
the late 1990s
After a relatively quiet couple of years on the
acquisition front in fiscal 1995 and 1996, Sara
Lee grew hungrier during the fiscal year ending
in June 1997, spending nearly $700 million to gobble
up several companies. The most prominent of these
were Aoste, a French maker of processed meats; Lovable
Italiana S.p.A., an Italian manufacturer of intimate
apparel; and Brossard France S.A., a French producer
of bakery products. Also during fiscal 1997, James
Wahl was named president and chief operating officer
of Sara Lee, with Bryan remaining chairman and CEO.
Wahl, who had been executive vice-president, had
joined the company in 1976.
In September 1997 Sara Lee embarked on a major restructuring
designed to boost both profits, which had been growing
by just 6 percent a year since 1992, and the company's
lagging stock price. As part of a program called "deverticalization,"
Sara Lee aimed to reduce its degree of vertical
integration, shifting from a manufacturing and sales
orientation to one focused foremost on marketing
the firm's top brands. As many of its competitors
had done--particularly those specializing in apparel
and household products--Sara Lee began outsourcing
more of its manufacturing; the company also sold
off more than 110 manufacturing and distribution
facilities over the next two years. Nearly 10,000
employees, representing 7 percent of the workforce,
were laid off. Sara Lee also exited from several
noncore businesses. The Mark Cross leather goods
operation was shut down, and Sara Lee sold its cut-tobacco
unit, Douwe Egberts Van Nelle Tobacco, to Imperial
Tobacco Group PLC for $1.08 billion in mid-1998.
Proceeds from the divestments and the cost savings
derived from the restructuring were earmarked for
investment in the company's core brands and to buy
back $3 billion in company stock.
In December 1998, while this restructuring was still
being implemented, Sara Lee announced the recall
of 35 million pounds of hot dogs and deli meats
that were thought to have been contaminated with
listeria, a life-threatening bacteria. The products
were traced back to a plant in Zeeland, Michigan,
run by the firm's Bil Mar Foods Inc. unit. The contaminated
meat was eventually blamed for 15 deaths, six miscarriages,
and more than 100 illnesses. By 2001 Sara Lee had
settled several civil lawsuits for less than $5
million, and the company also pleaded guilty to
a misdemeanor charge of selling tainted meat and
agreed to pay the maximum fine of $200,000 and to
spend $3 million on food-safety research. Sara Lee
also spent $25 million to renovate the Bil Mar plant.
The tainted meat case hurt the company's profits,
depressed its stock, and tarnished its credibility.
Meanwhile,
Sara Lee completed several acquisitions
in fiscal 1999 and 2000, with a particular emphasis
on bolstering the firm's coffee operations. During
the former year, Continental Coffee Products Company,
a U.S. producer of roasted and ground coffee, was
acquired from the Quaker Oats Company. Sara Lee
spent $1 billion during fiscal 2000 to acquire:
Chock full o'Nuts Corporation, a U.S. coffee roaster
and marketer; the North American coffee business
of Nestlé S.A., including the Hills Bros., MJB,
and Chase & Sanborn brands; Outer Banks Inc.,
maker of knit sports shirts; and Courtaulds Textiles
plc, the number one producer of intimate apparel
and underwear in the United Kingdom, under such
brands as Gossard, Berlei, and Aristoc as well as
private-label brands. At the end of fiscal 2000,
McMillan moved up to president and CEO, while Bryan
continued as chairman.
2000s: another restructuring
and major divestments
Despite the restructuring efforts of the late 1990s,
Sara Lee continued to struggle. Profits had failed
to grow at a faster pace, and annual sales growth
for the five-year period from fiscal 1996 to fiscal
2000 was just 2.2 percent. The stock price, after
jumping following the launch of the restructuring,
was once again tumbling. In an attempt to reverse
the company's fortunes, McMillan announced an even
more ambitious restructuring in May 2000: Sara Lee
would reign in its wide-ranging portfolio of businesses
by focusing on three main areas--food and beverages,
intimates and underwear, and household products;
by reorganizing management to eliminate such duplicative
efforts as running ten separate meat companies;
and through a new round of divestments, including
the leather goods company
Coach, athletic
apparel producer
Champion, foodservice
distributor PYA/monarch, and the international fabrics
manufacturing unit of
Courtaulds. The restructuring efforts also would
include the layoff of more than 13,000 employees,
amounting to almost 10 percent of the workforce.
The divestment program proceeded in large part as
outlined. In December 2000, PYA/monarch was sold
to Royal
Ahold for $1.56 billion and was merged with
U.S. Foodservice. In October 2000, Sara Lee
sold off 19.5 percent of the newly named
Coach Inc. to the
public, raising $118 million. The following April
Sara Lee fully divested itself of its Coach holdings
by spinning off the remaining interest to Sara Lee
shareholders, netting $1.1 billion in the process.
The
Courtaulds fabrics manufacturing unit was sold
to Spanish fabric maker Dogi in April 2001. Although
Sara Lee eventually decided to retain its
Champion
business in the United States, it did sell off Champion
Europe. A number of other smaller divestments were
completed in 2001 and 2002 as well. Overall, the
divestments equaled about 20 percent of company
revenues.
Acquisitions were not a major feature of fiscal
2001, although Sara Lee did purchase Café Pilao
Caboclo Ltda., the leading coffee company in Brazil,
and Sol y Oro, the leading seller of women's underwear
in Argentina. But then in August 2001, Sara Lee
shifted back into a more serious growth mode by
completing the largest acquisition in company history,
that of The Earthgrains Company, purchased for $1.9
billion plus the assumption of $957 million in long-term
debt. St. Louis-based Earthgrains was the nation's
second largest bakery, with annual revenues of $2.6
billion, and it specialized in fresh packaged bread
and refrigerated dough. The bakery operations of
Earthgrains and Sara Lee were combined within the
newly named Sara Lee Bakery Group. In October 2001
Bryan retired, ending his long stint as company
chairman. McMillan added the chairman's post to
his duties. It remained to be seen whether the restructuring
spearheaded by McMillan would prove more successful
than that launched by his predecessor.
Brenda C. Barnes was named President and Chief Operating
Officer of Sara Lee Corporation in 2004. The Senseo
coffee system is launched in the United States,
the United Kingdom and Denmark.
In February 2005, the company began executing a
bold and ambitious 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, U.S. retail coffee and direct selling
businesses.
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. Brenda C. Barnes was named president
and chief executive officer of Sara Lee Corporation
in 2005, and the corporation announced it selected
a Downers Grove, Illinois, location as the new company
headquarters, which will house the company's North
American operating businesses and the majority of
Sara Lee's corporate staff.
2005 also saw the debut of Sara Lee Soft & Smooth
Made with Whole Grain White Bread, which continues
to deliver white-bread taste with whole-grain nutrition.
In October, Brenda C. Barnes succeeded C. Steven
McMillan as chairman of Sara Lee Corporation. The
year ended with the sale of Sara Lee's direct selling
business to
Tupperware.
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 raises 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.
By 2009, Sara Lee was pursuing the sale of its European
household and personal 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.
Key dates
- 1939: Nathan Cummings buys C.D. Kenny Company,
a small wholesale distributor of sugar, coffee,
and tea based in Baltimore.
- 1942: Sprague, Warner & Company, distributor
of canned and packaged food, is acquired; company
relocates to Chicago and is renamed Sprague
Warner-Kenny Corporation.
- 1945: Company changes name to Consolidated
Grocers Corporation.
- 1946: Company goes public with a listing
on the New York Stock Exchange.
- 1954: Company changes name to Consolidated
Foods Corporation (CFC).
- 1956: The Kitchens of Sara Lee, maker of
frozen baked goods, is acquired; CFC also acquires
34 Piggly Wiggly supermarkets.
- 1966: Under order from the Federal Trade
Commission, CFC agrees to divest its supermarket
division; the company acquires its first meat
company, E. Kahn's Sons Company, and its first
nonfood company, Oxford Chemical Corporation.
- 1968: CFC enters the apparel industry with
the purchase of Gant shirts.
- 1971: Hillshire Farm is acquired.
- 1974: John H. Bryan becomes company president,
beginning a long reign as head of the firm.
- 1978: CFC acquires Douwe Egberts, a Dutch
coffee, tea, and tobacco producer.
- 1979: The hostile takeover of undergarment
maker Hanes Corporation is completed.
- 1984: Jimmy Dean Meats is acquired.
- 1985: CFC changes its name to Sara Lee Corporation;
the company acquires the foreign subsidiaries
of Nicholas Kiwi Limited, an Australian maker
of shoe care and other products, and also buys
Coach leatherware.
- 1987: Dutch household goods conglomerate
Akzo is acquired.
- 1991: Undergarment maker Playtex is acquired.
- 1998: Sara Lee sells its tobacco unit to
Imperial Tobacco Group.
- 1999: Company acquires coffee brands Chock
full o'Nuts, Hills Bros., MJB, and Chase &
Sanborn.
- 2000: Company acquires Courtaulds Textiles
plc, leading seller of intimate apparel and
underwear in the United Kingdom; partial interest
in Coach is sold through an IPO; foodservice
distributor PYA/monarch is sold for $1.56 billion
and merged with U.S. Foodservice.
- 2001: Remaining stake in Coach is spun off
to Sara Lee shareholders; Sara Lee purchases
the second largest bakery in the United States,
The Earthgrains Company.
- 2005: Sara Lee's retail Coffee & Tea
division were sold off to Massimo Zanetti Beverage
company.
Environmental record
According to the Climate Counts Company Scorecard,
Sara Lee was ranked the worst food sector company,
which provided the least commitment for consumers
to reverse climate change.
Earthgrains Baking Companies, Inc., a subsidiary
of Sara Lee, paid a $5.25 million civil penalty
with the Department of Justice and the EPA for committing
the violating stratospheric ozone protection regulations.
With over 300 large appliances involved, 57 out
of 67 facilities owned by Earthgrains Baking Companies
leaked refrigerants, such as chlorofluorocarbons,
at a rate 35% higher than allowed by law.
In the EPA's 2002 Annual Report, Sara Lee reported
that it did not expect significantly adverse effects
on its finances on account of liability from the
EPA proceedings.
The US government further appointed Sara Lee to
convert all the company's industrial process refrigeration
appliances to prevent the release of substances
which deplete the ozone layer.
The company made no attempt to correct leakage problems
even after their discovery.
External links
Sara Lee Official website
HanesBrands.com Company Site