It has made Coach bags, Isotoner gloves, Kiwi shoe polish and Playtex bras. But Sara Lee Corp. has slimmed down to meat and cheesecake.
What was a $20 billion, multinational holding company with more than 150,000 employees in 2000 last week became a food-focused company renamed Hillshire Brands, with about 8,500 employees, a portfolio of meat products and frozen desserts and nearly $4 billion in sales.
The tighter focus is the result of a 12-year process in which Sara Lee has spun off and sold businesses, due in part to investment trends that have dimmed the appeal of diversified conglomerates. But experts also say the Downers Grove, Ill.-based company never found a solid base in any particular segment, even though Sara Lee boasted of such marquee names as Coach, Hanes undergarments and its eponymous cheesecakes.
Hillshire Brands' new CEO is betting that a simpler mission will improve shareholder returns.
"I've long been a believer in the power of a focused company," said Sean Connolly. "When you're focused, you can make sure you're nurturing your brands and paying attention to consumers. The evidence is clear that big, unfocused companies don't deliver."
Sara Lee spun off its remaining international coffee and tea business as a $3.3 billion company now called DE Master Blenders 1753 and based in the Netherlands.
About 85 percent of Hilshire Farms' sales will come from meat products like Jimmy Dean, Hillshire Farm and Ball Park. About 15 percent of its sales will be composed of the frozen desserts like the cheesecake Midwesterners long have wistfully associated with the S&P 500 company.
Connolly came to Sara Lee in January, after a decade at Camden, N.J.-based Campbell Soup Co., where he helped build the company's V8 business by reframing it as a fruit and vegetable drink and an easy vehicle for nutrients.
