Sara Lee Corporation Sara Lee Corp. Names Michel M.G. Cup Chief Financial Officer of CoffeeCo

 
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Sara Lee Corp. (NYSE: SLE) announced today that it has appointed Michel M.G. Cup as executive vice president and chief financial officer of its International Beverage business. He will also serve as chief financial officer of 'CoffeeCo' once it is spun-off from Sara Lee Corp. in the first half of calendar 2012. Cup will start his new duties on Dec. 1, 2011.

Cup, 42, joins Sara Lee from Dutch-based Provimi, a leader in international animal nutrition. He currently serves as chief financial officer and Board Member of the company where he oversees the global finance function, including M&A, Corporate Communications, Tax, Legal, IT, Treasury, Risk and Credit Management, as well as all finance related to Procurement. Previously, he was finance director of Decorative Paint Continental Europe for AkzoNobel NV. Prior to AkzoNobel, he held multiple finance managerial positions with Royal Numico NV, a leading baby food company, later sold to Danone. He began his business career with Deloitte Accountants in the Netherlands.

Jan Bennink, Sara Lee Corp.'s executive chairman, said "We are delighted to have attracted a candidate of Michel's talent and experience and he joins CoffeeCo at an exciting time. Having worked with Michel previously, I am fully confident that his background and expertise will be significant in helping launch CoffeeCo as a successful pure-play company and one of the world's leaders in Coffee and Tea."

Cup said "I believe the CoffeeCo business has tremendous potential and I'm delighted to join the company at this critical time. Jan Bennink has set an ambitious vision for the company and I'm looking forward enormously to the challenge."

About Sara Lee Corporation

Each and every day, Sara Lee (NYSE: SLE) delights millions of consumers and customers around the world. The company has one of the world's best-loved and leading portfolios with its innovative and trusted food and beverage brands, including Ball Park, Douwe Egberts, Hillshire Farm, Jimmy Dean, Sara Lee and Senseo. Collectively, our brands generate nearly $9 billion in annual net sales from continuing operations. Sara Lee has approximately 20,000 employees in its continuing operations worldwide. In January, 2011, Sara Lee Corp. announced that it will divide the company into two pure play publicly-traded companies. One company will be focused around the current International Coffee and Tea business, while the other company will be focused on the North American Retail Meats and North American Foodservice businesses. For more information on this news, and on Sara Lee's brands, please visit www.saralee.com.

Media (International): Ernesto Duran, +31.30.297.2329Media: Mike Cummins, +1.630.598.8412Analysts: Melissa Napier, +1.630.598.8739