Sara Lee may sell Champion

Rochester Business Journal Staff//September 15, 1997//

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Sara Lee Corp. today disclosed a three-year restructuring plan that
forecasts the sale of non-food units. Among those units is Champion
Products, which Sara Lee acquired for $320 million in 1989.
Sara Lee moved Champion’s headquarters to North Carolina and closed its
Monroe County operations, but the firm still employs some 525 employees
in Perry, Wyoming County economic development officials say.
Before a recent downsizing, the facility employed 675 people.
Sara Lee’s other non-food units include products sold under the labels Hanes, L’eggs, Bali, Playtex, Coach, Dim, Sanex and Kiwi.
The restructuring would result in a $1.6 billion after-tax charge, the company said, but is expected to raise $3 billion in cash that would be used to buy back stock on the open market.