Sara Lee Corp. announced it has signed an agreement to sell its North American Refrigerated Dough business to Ralcorp Frozen Bakery Products, Inc., a division of Ralcorp Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: RAH), for $545 million. The transaction is anticipated to close by the end of calendar year 2011.
In May 2011, Sara Lee Corp. announced that it was evaluating strategic options for this business, which provides a full range of private brand products including basic and specialty biscuits, crescent rolls, pizza and pie crusts and toaster pastries. These products are packaged for and sold to leading food and mass retailers.
“The sale of our North American Refrigerated Dough business to Ralcorp is another step forward for Sara Lee as we continue to prepare for our separation into two publicly-traded companies,” said Marcel Smits, chief executive officer, Sara Lee Corp. “It will better enable our North American business to focus on its branded meats and frozen desserts products and establish a platform for a strong and independent future.”
Sara Lee’s North American Refrigerated Dough business employs approximately 700 people and includes manufacturing facilities in Forest Park, Ga. and Carrollton, Tex. The business generated revenues in excess of $300 million in fiscal 2010.
About Ralcorp Holdings, Inc.
Ralcorp produces Post branded cereals, a variety of value brand and store brand foods sold under the individual labels of various grocery, mass merchandise and drugstore retailers, and frozen bakery products sold to in-store bakeries, restaurants and other foodservice customers. Ralcorp's diversified product mix includes: ready-to-eat and hot cereals; nutritional and cereal bars; snack mixes, cornbased chips and extruded corn snack products; crackers and cookies; snack nuts; chocolate candy; salad dressings; mayonnaise; peanut butter; jams and jellies; syrups; sauces; frozen griddle products including pancakes, waffles, and French toast; frozen biscuits and other frozen pre-baked products such as breads and muffins; frozen dough; and dry pasta. For more information about Ralcorp, visit the company's website at www.ralcorp.com.
About Sara Lee Corporation
Each and every day, Sara Lee (NYSE: SLE) delights millions of consumers and customers around the world. The company has one of the world’s best-loved and leading portfolios with its innovative and trusted food and beverage brands, including Ball Park, Douwe Egberts, Hillshire Farm, Jimmy Dean, Sara Lee and Senseo. Collectively, our brands generate nearly $9 billion in annual net sales from continuing operations. Sara Lee has approximately 20,000 employees in its continuing operations worldwide. In January, 2011, Sara Lee Corp. announced that it will divide the company into two pure play publicly-traded companies. One company will be focused around the current International Coffee and Tea business, while the other company will be focused on the North American Retail Meats and North American Foodservice businesses. For more information on this news, and on Sara Lee's brands, please visit www.saralee.com.