010601 Sara Lee to Combine Meat Business Into Two Units

New York - Food and consumer packaged goods giant Sara Lee Corp. said that it would combine its fragmented U.S. meat business into two units, retail and food service.

“We have duplicated too many functions too often and we have not maximized our ability to save money across a $3 billion business,” Robert Kopriva, chief executive of the company's foods business, said.

Kopriva said that Sara Lee's 10 separate meat businesses, whose brands include Hillshire Farm and Ball Park, could cut considerable costs by consolidating into two units that will serve large grocers and Sara Lee's growing food service business.

Not only was the decentralized structure inefficient, but it presented problems in recruiting and maintaining employees, he said in an address to investors in New York.

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