An article in Wednesday's
Wall Street Journal took stock of the ongoing restructuring at Sara Lee Corp., where CEO Brenda Barnes announced a write-down of nearly
$1
billion in the fourth quarter related to its 2001 acquisition of the Earthgrains bread company.
Though Sara Lee has been doing more selling than buying under Barnes, the Journal piece mentions the possibility of it acquiring Interstate Bakeries
Corp. So what's going on with the maker of Wonder Bread and Twinkies?
In
bankruptcy since September 2004, Interstate has drawn interest from
Yucaipa Cos. LLC, Bimbo Bakeries USA Inc. and
Ripplewood Holdings LLC. A big factor in any deal will be labor agreements with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. On July 17 a judge approved the sale of some real estate, part of the lengthy
reorganization process.
Thomas
Hansson took over as Sara Lee's senior vice president of strategic planning and
corporate development in March of 2007. He's continued the selling, but Sara Lee still sprawls. Brands include Douwe Egberts coffee, Sanex deodorant, Hit insect repellent, Sara
Lee bread, Hillshire Farm deli meat and Jimmy Dean sausage.
Interstate Bakeries
bakery brands, which include Hostess, Wonder, Home Pride, Drakes and
Beefsteak, would fit into Sara Lee's portfolio, adding more products and focus on
the core bakery business. They'd also make it even more important for Sara Lee to hedge or otherwise deal with the high cost of wheat, one of the problems it's struggling with.
Sara Lee has been slowly peeling away ownership of its international
businesses as part of its restructuring effort. The company
sold
its European meats business for $614 million in a joint venture of U.S. pork
heavyweight Smithfield Foods Inc. and Oaktree Capital Management LLC in 2006,
and its 49.9% stake in Mexico-based Qualitia Alimentos to joint venture partner
Xignux in
March of 2008.
- Maria Woehr
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