Sara Lee expands and restructures

Sara Lee Bakery is expanding its marketing operations by restruct-uring into three separate business units – Sara Lee Branded, Food-service and The Dessert Company.

Sara Lee Branded will be the consumer division, managing frozen dessert brands like Double Chocolate Gateaux and Lemon Meringue Pie. It will be headed by Rooney Anand who shifts from marketing director to general manager.

The 2m advertising account for Sara Lee Branded will be handled by Banks Hoggins O’Shea, but campaign plans have yet to be finalised (MW December 4 1997).

Anand will initially divide the marketing function between two managers, but plans to appoint a marketing director in the long term.

Sara Lee has drafted in Andrew Hayes, business manager at Nestlé UK food service division, for the newly-created post of general manager of Foodservice.

This self-contained business unit will sell desserts to the catering industry.

General manager for The Dessert Company, dedicated to frozen private label bakery activities, will be David Arrow, who joins from Booker subsidiary Bluecrest Foods.

The restructure is the result of two acquisitions – Finnegans Famous Cakes at the end of 1996, and Kaysens and Brossard which was bought from GrandMet last summer.

Each unit will have its own marketing, sales, research and development and finance teams.

“This is not a cosmetic exercise but a long-term change to improve dramatically the quality of our relationships with our customers,” says Sara Lee Bakery managing director Tim Smith.

“Far from being a rationalis-ation, I anticipate that the head count may rise.”

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