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Sara Lee to outsource 700 jobs

By James P. Miller | Tribune staff reporter

7:49 AM CST, December 11, 2008

Sara Lee Corp. said Thursday it intends to outsource certain business-process activities, in a move that will allow the elimination of about 700 jobs currently handled either by employees of the Downers Grove company or by its contractors.

The consumer-products concern said it will contract with outside providers certain transaction-processing chores from its North American and European Finance operations, and will also outsource applications development and maintenance work handled by its Global Information Services operation. In addition, the company is contracting out indirect-procurement activities that it currently handles in-house.

"As a result" of the planned actions, Sara Lee said, "approximately 700 positions, including roles currently performed by contractors, would be redundant."

About a dozen of the layoffs will be at Sara Lee's Downers Grove headquarters, where the company employs about 1,000 people, according to a Sara Lee spokesman. The company has about 44,000 employees worldwide.

The outsourcing plan is part of the company's "Accelerate" program, a cost-cutting initiative through which the company hopes to cut annual costs by $200 million to $250 million in the next three years.

Sara Lee said Thursday that it expects to begin implementing the initiative in North America in the current fiscal year, which ends next June; it plans to complete implementation worldwide within three years.

jpmiller@tribune.com