Sara Lee completes sale of bakery business in Spain and Portugal

American consumer goods company Sara Lee has completed the sale of its fresh bakery business in Spain and Portugal to Mexico’s Grupo Bimbo for €115m ($155m).

The deal includes all the brands of Sara Lee in Spain and Portugal as well as seven manufacturing plants.

Sara Lee executive chairman Jan Bennink said the acquisition is a natural next step that will benefit the Sara Lee bakery team and brands in Spain and Portugal, as they will become part of an organisation fully dedicated to the bakery category

"Divesting the bakery businesses allows Sara Lee’s international portfolio to become simpler and more focused on coffee and tea, the categories around which we are building a leading pure-play international company," Bennink added.

In October, Sara Lee entered the agreement with Grupo Bimbo to sell the unit, as a part of its strategy to divest its international bakery business.

The fresh bakery business, which posted a net sales of $408m in the fiscal 2011, manages more than 800 distribution routes and owns leading brands such as Bimbo, Eagle, Martinez, Ortiz and Silueta.

According to Grupo Bimbo, the acquisition of such an established bakery business strengthens its position as a leading branded bread company on the Iberian Peninsula and advances its international growth.

Sara Lee is currently in the process of splitting into two publicly traded companies; one focused on international coffee and tea business, and the other on North American meat brands.

Last month, Sara Lee completed the sale of its North American Fresh Bakery business to Grupo Bimbo for $709m, and also announced that it is in exclusive talks with Franco-Canadian private equity firm Sagard to divest its European chilled dough unit Eurodough for €115m ($159m).

Sara Lee owns a leading portfolio of food and beverage brands, including Ball Park, Douwe Egberts, Jimmy Dean, Hillshire Farm, Pickwick Teas, Sara Lee and Senseo.

Caption: Sara Lee sells its fresh bakery unit in Spain and Portugal as part of its strategy to divest its international bakery business