Baking & Snack - March 2005 - 37

2005 BAKER OF THE YEAR

angeburg, SC, bakery is about to start a more than
$5 million upgrade to support expansion not only in
whole-grain products but also in marketing territory.
"Orangeburg is a perfect example," Mr. Waters stated.
"It is our base for expanding into the Southeast, so capacity improvement is being sought. We found a number of
capital investment opportunities that will really open up
this plant. We are also spending at Nashville and Atlanta
to increase capacity."
THREE TEMPERATURES. SLBG plays in all temperatures in retail: fresh, refrigerated and frozen. Its frozen
and refrigerated businesses are managed along with
international ventures by Mike Knowles, president, US
warehouse and international frozen. "It's easier to turn
around a business than to keep raising the bar," he said
about the well-established brands in his group.
"On frozen, we decided to get back to basics," Mr.
Knowles said. This means focusing on Sara Lee's heritage

products: cheesecake and pound cake, for example. "We
do this by talking to consumers, by making promotion
more effective and by sprucing up the packaging. It's
pretty basic stuff, but we have achieved decent results.
"Now the challenge is to push into new categories in
frozen and refrigerated products," he continued. "The
trick is to balance risk and investment for new categories against returns for existing categories. The Sara Lee
brand can play in a lot of categories, and as long as you
meet quality expectations, there are no limits other than
the usual competitive dynamics."
To develop these product categories, SLBG proceeds
with three approaches: new products, flavor extensions
and reinforcement of base products. The Sara Lee frozen
chocolate cheesecake recently introduced exemplifies
how these directions converge, as does the company's
efforts in the pie category.
"In fruit pies, 75% of total volume is done in the
fourth quarter, but we would like to see more year-round
movement in the pie category," said Mr. Knowles. "Two
years ago, Sara Lee launched premium cream pies, thus
extending the selling season into spring and summer
months. In some markets, cream pies are now No. 1, and
most sell well above the minimum volume needed to
justify staging in the market."
International represents interesting new possibilities.

40 / BAKING & SNACK / March 2005

He described United Kingdom operations as a "start up"
frozen business.
"Because we have businesses around the world with
different expertise, we can share around the globe," Mr.
Knowles said. Consider refrigerated cookie dough. The
company has a well-established private label place in this
product category in US markets, but the product is brand
new in Australia. "We started working with refrigerated
cookies in Australia under the Sara Lee brand six months
ago," Mr. Knowles said.
At SLBG, R&D reports to Mr. Knowles, who observed,
"R&D is a real strength at this company. We can take a
concept to market in a very short time. The introduction
of Delightful is a good example."
According to Mr. Knowles, success in R&D depends on
having the idea and the belief in that idea; having good
competent development people; and having the network
in place to get the new product to market in a solid way.
"And in all this, cross-functional teams and consensus
building are also essential," he said.
DIVERSITY INVESTMENT. Just as the company has
shifted its brand, market and manufacturing bases, it has
also brought in new staff, making a deliberate investment
in diversity. In manufacturing, for example, the company
set up a regional structure of five managers, two of whom
are new, according to Mr. Waters. "Today, almost 25% of
our plants have new leadership," he added. "And in the engineering group, we have a new, young team, well attuned
to new technologies and actively bringing in new ideas."
Personnel change occurs through attrition, transfer of
current staff and recruitment from outside Sara Lee.
"Today, plant managers have to be more diverse in
their backgrounds," Mr. Waters explained. "We look for
people who have strong leadership characteristics. They
may not necessarily have a baking background, but food
industry experience is important. About half our recent
plant manager changes involve people from outside the
company. We can provide the bakery training, but our
goal is to make them leadership experts."
Managers throughout Sara Lee Corp. put emphasis on
diversity in recruiting and hiring. "This is a very focused
effort on our part," Ms. Saumweber commented.
"We are not yet where we intend to be," Mr. Nictakis
said, "but we are making progress. We want to have
people in our organization and workforce who reflect
our consumers. We aspire to be one of the best CPG
companies in the world, to be in the top tier along with
Procter & Gamble, Kraft and PepsiCo. To do that, we
need diverse talents and experience. The baking industry
historically has not been that diverse.
"Sara Lee is now on radar screens where we didn't
register before," he stated. "It's the brand, but it's also
the people."
Ⅲ

Baking & Snack - March 2005

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Baking & Snack - March 2005