Sara Lee Announces Sale of Three Spanish Bakery Plants to Grupo Siro

This agreement allows us to further improve production economics and supply our Spanish customers and consumers with the products they know and love, especially Bimbo.

17/07/09 Sara Lee Corp.’s International Bakery segment has reached an agreement to sell three of its Spanish bakery production plants - Briviesca (Burgos), Antequera (Malaga) and Agüimes (Gran Canaria) - to Grupo Siro.

The transaction will allow both groups to adapt their production capacities to the needs of the market by optimizing utilization in these facilities. Grupo Siro’s commitment to maintain the level of production in each facility means that the jobs will be retained, a key factor upon which the decision has been based.

“This is terrific news for Sara Lee and our International Bakery business in Spain,” said Frank van Oers, chief executive officer, Sara Lee International Beverage and Bakery. “This agreement allows us to further improve production economics and supply our Spanish customers and consumers with the products they know and love, especially Bimbo.”

“In addition, this agreement enables the company to increase its investment behind key customer and consumer programs, while continuing to leverage a first-class, experienced workforce,” Van Oers concluded.

“This transaction brings significant growth to Grupo Siro, allowing us to achieve our strategic plans ahead of schedule,” said J.M. Gonzalez Serna, Grupo Siro’s owner.

Upon approval of this transaction, Sara Lee will continue to own and market all of its Spanish Bakery products, including its leading Bimbo brand. The agreement is pending approval from the Spanish Competition Authorities (CNC), as is normal in this type of transaction.

Once approved, Sara Lee’s Spanish bakery business will consist of eight factories, 55 distribution centres and a total of 2,500 workers. Its factories are located in Madrid, Palma de Mallorca, Granollers (Barcelona), Vergel (Alicante), Almansa (Albacete), Solares (Cantabria), Azuqueca de Henares (Guadalajara) and Albergharia, the latter situated in Portugal.

With the close of this transaction, Grupo Siro will increase its work force to some 3,100 employees and 14 production facilities. In addition to the factories which it has acquired now, Grupo Siro has three production plants in Venta de Baños (Palencia), two in Aguilar de Campoo (Palencia) and one in El Espinar (Segovia), Toro (Zamora), Medina del Campo (Valladolid), Paterna and Navarrés (Valencia) and Montblanc (Tarragona). The company has become a significant player in the bread roll, dessert, sliced bread and cake categories in Spain.