Sara Lee Corporation (NYSE: SLE) is an American consumer-goods company based in Illinois. Sara Lee is also the brand name of a number of frozen and packaged foods, often known for the long-running slogan "Nobody doesn't like Sara Lee". This slogan has been in place since 1968.

The company traces its lineage to 1939, when Nathan Cummings acquired C.D. Kenny Company, a wholesale distributor of sugar, coffee and tea in Baltimore, and created Consolidated Foods Corporation. In 1956 the company bought a company known as "Kitchens of Sara Lee", which became one of the company's best-known brand names. In 1985 management adopted the brand name as the name of the corporation as a whole.

As of 2004, Sara Lee Corporation has operations in 58 countries; sells food, clothing and household products in nearly 200 nations; and has 150,000 employees worldwide.

Focus and Change

In February of 2005, Brenda C. Barnes became the chairman and CEO of Sara Lee. The Wall Street Journal named Barnes one of 50 women to watch in 2005. The firm also announced that it would move its headquarters from Chicago, Illinois to Downers Grove, Illinois. The company began executing a bold and ambitious multi-year plan to transform Sara Lee into a company focused on food, beverage, and household and body care businesses around the world. As part of its transformation plan, Sara Lee will drive growth in its key categories via such strong brands as Ball Park, Douwe Egberts, Hillshire Farm, Jimmy Dean, Kiwi, Sanex, Senseo and its namesake, Sara Lee. One of these sales was that of UK based clothing manufacturer Courtaulds ^[1]