OMD nets £100m Sara Lee pan-European business

Sara Lee International has handed its &£100m pan-European media planning and buying business to Omnicom’s OMD network, following a six-month review.

OMD will take on the business in January, and will handle all media buying across Europe for Sara Lee brands, which include Brylcreem, Radox, Sanex, Ambi-Pur and Douwe Egberts coffee.

A spokeswoman says OMD’s appointment was driven by the need to align the group’s European media operations, which were previously handled by nine agencies on a local basis. The review does not affect Sara Lee’s creative agencies in the UK, which include Grey and WCRS.

But it does mean that ZenithOptimedia, which previously handled Sara Lee’s &£11m UK planning and buying account, has lost the business.

Sara Lee International is the Netherlands-based division of the Sara Lee Corporation, and manages all of the company’s coffee, tea and bakery businesses outside North America, as well as the group’s worldwide household and body care brands.

The Sara Lee Corporation, based in Chicago, operates Sara Lee Foods – the packaged meats producer, and the Sara Lee Bakery – which produces fresh bread and frozen desserts.

The Sara Lee Corporation also owns a clothing business, which produces the Playtex and Wonderbra brands.