Sara Lee Corporation (Sara Lee) is a global manufacturer and marketer of brand-name products for consumers throughout the world focused primarily on the meats, bakery, beverage and household products categories.
The Company’s operations are organized around six business segments: North American Retail, North American Fresh Bakery, North American Foodservice, International Beverage, International Bakery, and International Household and Body Care.
The Company’s customers include mass retailers and supermarket chains in both the United States and Europe.
In September 2008, Richelieu Foods, Inc. announced that it acquired the sauces and dressings business from the Company’s Foodservice segment.
In March 2009, Farmer Bros. Co. acquired from the Company its United States direct-store delivery (DSD) Foodservice coffee business.
The company traces its lineage to 1939, when Nathan Cummings acquired C.D. Kenny Company, a wholesale distributor of sugar, coffee and tea in Baltimore, and created Consolidated Foods Corporation. In 1956 the company bought a company known as Kitchens of Sara Lee, which became one of the company's best-known brand names. In 1985 management adopted the brand name as the name of the corporation as a whole. As of 2006, Sara Lee Corporation has operations in more than 40 countries; sells food, beverage and household products in over 180 countries; and has some 40,000 employees worldwide.
Its international operations are headquartered in Utrecht, the Netherlands.