Grand Rapids, MI - With 11 deaths already linked to its Michigan meat plant, Sara Lee Corp. hopes newspaper ads will reassure customers that its products are safe.
The full-page ads appeared in nearly 80 newspapers this week, including The New York Times and USA Today, according to Sara Lee spokesman Jeffrey Smith.
They feature a letter from Sara Lee's chairman and president reminding consumers to check their freezers for hot dogs and deli meats with certain batch numbers.
Sara Lee's Bil Mar Foods plant in Zeeland, MI voluntarily recalled the products Dec. 22 after reports they might be contaminated with listeria, a type of bacteria.
The ads also assure customers that "safety and wholesomeness” are its top priorities.
"I think consumers have appreciated having an 800 number that they can call at any time. I'm hopeful ... consumers appreciate the clarity with which we've communicated the recall,” Smith said. "We're looking to recover all products purchased.”
Jack Kinard of Memphis, Tenn., lost his 64-year-old wife, Mary Jo, to listeriosis after she ate Sara Lee hot dogs and ham.
Kinard said he believes the ad shows the company is taking responsibility for what happened, but he's not sure if he'll ever trust its products again.
"I'm not angry, nothing will bring her back,” he said. "But it would be a long time before I would even consider buying from them again.”
The ads pleased Nomi Ghez, an analyst with Goldman Sachs in New York, who said the company needs to act quickly to reassure its customers, even though meat processing is only a small part of its operations.
"This is a short-term crisis ... and the recall has been fairly limited,” she said. "But because the updates of deaths keep coming, this creates a lot of negative publicity for the company.”
In the past three weeks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has linked 11 deaths and three miscarriages in 13 states to a distinctive strain of listeria found in hot dogs and deli meats produced at the Zeeland plant. More than 50 other cases of illness have been reported.
A lawsuit filed last month in Chicago seeks class-action status for anyone who ate the recalled products.
Bil Mar shut down the production lines which made the products. The company is conducting its own investigation into what happened, and estimates the recall will cost between $50 million and $70 million.
The USDA also wants to find out where the contamination occurred, but it appears likely that it originated in the plant since all the products sold were already cooked.
"The cooking process should have killed any listeria,” said Beth Gaston, a USDA spokeswoman. Bil Mar won't resume production and sale of the recalled products without federal approval.
What Sara Lee needs to concentrate on now is maintaining the public trust, said Gerry Meyers, a professor at the University of Michigan Business School.
"They need to talk to their customers, take their temperature and see how they're doing ... what the anger level is,” said Meyers, who specializes in corporate crisis management. "There's only one right way to fight something like this ... to come forward to be completely open about what you know and what you don't.”
Retailers may also need extra assurance.
Ron Cox, spokesman for D&W Food Centers Inc., said the Grand Rapids-based grocery store chain first found out about the recall through media reports, not Bil Mar.
"There probably could have been some better communication, but since then it's been good,” he said, adding the company will welcome the affected products back on the shelf when the government clears their sale.
But fighting public perception may be Sara Lee's greatest challenge.
Meyers said his wife wanted to throw out all the Sara Lee products in the freezer when she first heard about the recall.
"I told her to check the numbers to see if they matched the recall, and they didn't, so we put them back,” he said. "People are very sensitive about food safety.”
Meat Industry Insights News Service
P.O. Box 553
Northport, NY 11768
Phone: 631-757-4010
Fax: 631-757-4060
E-mail: sflanagan@sprintmail.com
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