Bakery lags for Sara Lee as profits soar

Company CEO Marcel Smits said: “We made brisk improvement on the meat categories in the retail and foodservice businesses, while the bakery categories lagged.”​

Sara Lee said volume and share improvement in the company’s core meat categories was diluted by weak performance in bakery categories.

However, adjusted net sales for the company were up 5.8% to $2bn, while adjusted operating income soared 18.4% to $256m

This year the company is preparing to split its operations in two. Details of the split are expected later this month.

In preparation for the spin-off Sara Lee has offloaded businesses in its least profitable segment: bakery.

Last year, it sold its American Fresh Bakery business and fresh bakery businesses in Spain and Portugal to Mexican firm Grupo Bimbo.

In November it was also mulling an offer from Sagard for its French refrigerated dough business EuroDough.