Baking & Snack - June 2005 - 18

NEWS FRONT
Sara Lee heads to Chicago
Sara Lee Corp. selected a business park in
the Chicago suburb of Downers Grove, IL,
as the new location of its corporate headquarters. The facility will be the new home
to the majority of Sara Lee's corporate staff
as well as the company's North American
operating businesses.
On Feb. 10, the company announced a transformation plan to drive
long-term growth and
performance. Sara Lee's
transformation is built upon three pillars:
organizing its business operations around
consumers, customers and geographic
markets; focusing its portfolio; and increasing operational efficiency to fund growth,
company officials reiterated today.
"In transforming Sara Lee into a premier
consumer products company focused on
food, beverage and household products,
we are undergoing a dramatic culture shift

from a collection of companies to a single
operating enterprise," said Brenda C. Barnes,
president and c.e.o. "A critical part of our
transformation strategy is that - for the first
time in Sara Lee's history - we are bringing
operating management together in a single
location, where they will also be joined by the
corporate staff.
"This will provide
a natural catalyst for
sharing best practices
and pursuing growth
opportunities across the businesses, as well
as provide our employees with great opportunities for professional development and
career growth."
As part of the transformation, the company is moving its bakery and packaged
meats businesses from St. Louis, MO, and
Cincinnati, OH, respectively, as well as its
beverage business in Rolling Meadows, IL,
to the Downers Grove location to form two

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For more information, see Page 117

20 / BAKING & SNACK / June 2005

business segments, Sara Lee Food & Beverage and Sara Lee Foodservice. Sara Lee will
begin relocating employees into temporary
space in its new headquarters building this
summer and anticipates the entire move will
be completed by July 2006.
In addition, the company will retain nearly
70 accounting, tax and shareholder services
employees in a corporate finance center in
downtown Chicago. These functions are
deeply immersed in transformation actions
and corporate activities that are managed
independently from the consolidation of
operating activities at the new headquarters
location, company officials said.

IBC to close bakery
Interstate Bakeries Corp., Kansas City, MO,
plans to close its bakery in New Bedford, MA,
and consolidate production, routes, depots
and thrift stores throughout the Northeast
where it maintains regional facilities. The
measures are part of
IBC's continuing
efforts to address
its revenue declines
and high-cost structure, company officials said.
IBC said it expects to complete the consolidation of the Northeast profit center by
mid-August, subject to bankruptcy court
approval. The consolidation is expected to
affect approximately 1,400 workers.
"Today's decision is not a reflection on the
hard work and efforts of our employees, but is
based on what is best for the overall health of
the company," said Tony Alvarez II, chief executive of IBC and executive with Alvarez & Marsal,
the corporate advisory and turnaround management services firm hired to handle IBC.
"Our end goal is to greatly reduce the operating
weaknesses and redundancies that continue
to hurt our business - to save our company
and as many jobs as possible. We will make
every reasonable effort to make this transition
as smooth as possible for our employees."
In recent weeks, the company announced
plant closings in Charlotte, NC, and Miami,
FL, and the consolidation of regional routes,
depots and thrift stores.

Baking & Snack - June 2005

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