Grupo Bimbo will be permitted to acquire Sara Lee’s North American Fresh Bakery baking division, the Justice Department announced Friday..
The settlement requires that the Mexican company and its U.S. baking unit, BBU Inc. sell the rights to sell Sara Lee’s brands of sliced fresh bread in various metropolitan areas throughout the country.
“BBU and Sara Lee’s North American Fresh Bakery business aggressively compete head-to-head for sliced fresh bread sold in retail stores,” Sharis A. Pozen, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, said in a news release. “Without the divestitures required by the department in eight geographic markets, the combination of BBU and Sara Lee’s North American Fresh Bakery business would likely lead to millions of Americans paying higher prices for sliced fresh bread.”
As part of the settlement, BBU agreed to sell the rights to manufacture, distribute and market Sara Lee’s EarthGrains label in California, Kansas, Oklahoma and Nebraska, along with the Holsum and Milano brands in central Pennsylvania.
BBU is the largest baker and seller of sliced fresh bread in the U.S., and sells a variety of products including Arnold, Oroweat, Brownberry, Thomas’, Entenmann’s, Boboli, Freihofer’s and Stroehmann’s. In 2009, its sales in the U.S. totaled approximately $3.9 billion.
Sara Lee is the third largest baker and seller of sliced fresh bread in the U.S. and sells brand names that include the Sara Lee brand family and EarthGrains. Its North American Fresh Bakery Division took in approximately $2.1 billion in revenue.
