Sara Lee 2010 Annual Report Download - page 4

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2Sara Lee Corporation
Coming off of two very good years, Sara Lee is well-positioned to deliver
growth and drive shareholder value over the long-term. With a relentless
focus on consumers, customers and operations, we have become a
stronger, simpler and better company.
The three words on the cover of this report clearly articulate
where we have been, where we are today and where we are going
in the future. I’d like to offer you some perspective about each.
Stronger Strength in business can be measured in many ways.
I’d like to point out two that stand out for us in recent years.
First, we are winning in the marketplace behind the strength
of our brands. Market share performance is a good indicator of our
progress. In North American Retail, share grew in 10 of our 12 core
categories in fiscal 2010. In North American Fresh Bakery, we saw
branded share gains recently in spite of a highly competitive environ-
ment. And, in International Beverage, behind on-trend new products,
we successfully grew and defended our strong share positions in the
face of challenging economic conditions. Our success is predicated
on a complementary set of strong capabilities, including supply chain,
marketing, customer management and innovation.
The second is our strengthened talent base. We’ve taken
deliberate steps to provide more training and support for our
employees, while setting very high standards for new hires. We have
a world-class group of employees working with a common mission,
vision and values, as well as true alignment around their goals, plans
and actions. Working with talented people gives everyone at Sara Lee
greater confidence in our ability to succeed in the future.
Simpler The most apparent move to simplify Sara Lee has
been our ongoing portfolio rationalization. During fiscal 2010,
we began the process of divesting our International Household
and Body Care businesses.
To date, we have announced four transactions and have
closed the sale of Air Care to The Procter & Gamble Company and
our stake in an Indian Insecticides joint venture to our partner
Godrej Consumer Products.
We have announced binding offers to sell our Body Care
business to Unilever and our non-Indian Insecticides operation
to SC Johnson. Both are expected to close by the end of calendar
year 2010. We have also continued to exit non-core, low-margin
businesses, such as commodity meats.
Simplification is not only about our portfolio, but also about
how we run our business. By streamlining processes and improving
our systems, we have a leaner, more effective approach to managing
Sara Lee. In particular, Project Accelerate – a company-wide cost
reduction and productivity initiative with simplification at its core –
continues to make meaningful contributions to both the bottom line
and the quality of our operations.
Dear fellow stockholders