Sara Lee completes sale of majority of North America Foodservice coffee operations to the J.M. Smucker Company

Sara Lee Corp. (NYSE: SLE) announced today it has completed the sale of the majority of its North American Foodservice coffee and tea operations to The J.M. Smucker Company in an all-cash transaction. The two companies have also entered into a licensing and support agreement to cooperatively develop liquid coffee technologies to drive long-term growth. The sale was originally announced in Oct., 2011.

“The sale of a major part of our North American coffee business to Smucker is the latest example of CoffeeCo’s focus on creating the strongest possible pure-play company,” said Jan Bennink, executive chairman of the board, Sara Lee Corp. “We look forward to working with Smucker and to the promising future of our new independent coffee and tea company.”