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.[3]
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.
[4]
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.[5]
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.[6]
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.[7]
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.[8]
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.[9]
The company made no attempt to correct leakage problems
even after their discovery.[10]
See also
Notes and references
-
^
Sara Lee 2005 Annual Report Sara Lee
Corporation. Page 113.
- ^
"Sara
Lee announces closure of kosher hot dog and meat
processing facility in Chicago". SaraLee.com.
Sara Lee Corp.. 19 November 2008.
http://www.saralee.com/~/media/1A26DA3328F541FC8C3B6204DA64F5E2.ashx.
Retrieved on 22 November 2008.
- ^
Dorfman, Brad (04/17/2009). "Sara
Lee still evaluating possible unit sale".
Reuters.
http://www.reuters.com/article/innovationNews/idUSTRE53G41F20090417.
Retrieved on 05/03/2009.
- ^
Sara Lee Corporation (04/17/2009).
Sara Lee Corporation Opens the Kitchens of Sara Lee.
Press release.
http://www.saralee.com/~/media/1CDA059186314B949BA91A752E8B423D.ashx.
Retrieved on 05/03/2009.
- ^
"Climate
Counts" (PDF). 06/01/2007.
http://www.climatecounts.org/pdf/CCScorecardReport-App6-07.pdf.
Retrieved on 2008-05-06.
- ^
"U.S.
Department of Justice". 2003-07-31.
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2003/July/03_enrd_432.htm.
Retrieved on 2008-05-06.
- ^
"U.S.
Department of Justice". 2003-07-31.
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2003/July/03_enrd_432.htm.
Retrieved on 2008-05-06.
- ^
"US
Environmental Protection Agency July 30th news
release". September 2003.
http://www.epa.gov/ozone/enforce/.
Retrieved on 2008-05-06.
- ^
"KC
GlobeNews". September 2003.
http://www.kahl.net/globenews/globenews9-10-2003.txt.
Retrieved on 2008-05-06.
- ^
"Co-Op
America". 2008-03-31.
http://www.coopamerica.org/programs/rs/profile.cfm?id=285.
Retrieved on 2008-05-06.
External links
