Sara Lee 2011 Annual Report Download - page 7

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Sara Lee Corporation 5
DEAR FELLOW STOCKHOLDERS
We are writing the last chapter of a
fundamental transformation of our com-
pany. A decade ago, Sara Lee was a holding
company with numerous unrelated and
decentralized operating units. As the business
environment transformed, Sara Lee evolved
into a streamlined operating company.
Successive management teams pared the
company’s portfolio to increase focus and
implemented programs to reach contempo-
rary standards of operational excellence. This
process benefited the divested businesses
as well as those that remain with Sara Lee.
In the last two years, we found new
homes for our Household and Body Care
businesses, reached an agreement to sell
our North American Fresh Bakery business
and are also in the process of divesting the
majority of our International Bakery assets.
We retained two businesses: North American
Meats and International Coffee & Tea. Both
are well positioned to win with great brands,
strong market positions, healthy innovation
pipelines and complete focus on their
respective markets. The final chapter in
the evolution of Sara Lee began in January
with our announcement to separate into two
independent, pure play companies. While
this announcement marks the end of the
journey for one company, it begins two
new stories. We are very excited about
what lies ahead.
Fiscal 2011 was a year of tremendous
progress During Fiscal 2011, we announced
the closings of our air care, body care, shoe
care and cleaning business divestitures, as
well as the completion of our $1.8 billion share
buyback program. Our Household and Body
Care divestitures are now largely complete
and we are pleased that our brands have
found new homes and promising futures with
well respected consumer products companies.
In November, we announced the next major
step in our portfolio transformation with
an agreement to sell our North American
Fresh Bakery division to Grupo Bimbo.
We expect this disposition to close soon.
We also added two new businesses that
will enhance the portfolios of our ongoing
companies. In November, we reached agree-
ment to acquire Café Damasco, a coffee
business with premium positioning and more
than 50 years of experience operating in
southern Brazil. The acquisition enabled
us to expand our footprint in this important
emerging market and leverage manufactur-
ing synergies. In May, we announced the
acquisition of Aidells Sausage Company.
Aidells is well known for its small batch,
all natural sausages produced with fresh
ingredients. This premium brand provides
us with exposure to new distribution chan-
nels and a method to reach an expanded
customer base. Our meat business will