.floatimg-left-hort { float:left; } .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 12px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 12px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 12px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} Dear Mr. Berko:

Dear H.R.:

There’s something organically wrong with this company. The last time I remember a positive opinion on Sara Lee Corp. (SLE-$14.77) was November 2006, when the stock was trading at $23. At that time, Matrix Research issued a solid “buy” rating, and I wondered if the Matrix folks may have been infected with mad cow disease.

I — and many on the Street – can’t fathom why a company with so many top-selling brands would, year after year, produce such dismal and disappointing results. Walk the aisles of any drugstore, supermarket or convenience store, and all those shelves are stocked with SLE’s bakery products, beverages, meats, body-care items, detergents, shoe-care products and insecticides. All top-quality brands at moderate prices.

Though the first six months of each recent fiscal year were minimally ahead of expectations, disappointing second-half revenues stumbled lower by 2.7 percent year after year. Despite holding leading market positions with many of its delectable, savory and toothsome brands, earnings during the last 10 years have been paralyzed by management’s inefficiency and cockamamie operating structure.

So in early 2005, Sara Lee hired Brenda Barnes from PepsiCo (and it seems PepsiCo was delighted to have her leave) as chairman and CEO. I’m not certain of her accomplishments at PepsiCo, but Barnes immediately commenced a major restructuring program, which did help to minimally grow revenues, but margins continued to decline. Her efforts were basically a dead-cat bounce; revenues improved, but earnings continued to founder.

Just last year, Barnes, with a great internal fanfare, initiated another giant restructuring program to improve efficiency and its cost effectiveness. The changes hardly helped, and some say the strain may force her to leave Sara Lee because of health problems. Her most serious problem is her psychopathic management team, many of whom wouldn’t qualify as a french fry specialist at Burger King.

It’s quite telling that SLE’s revenues and earnings per employee are way below those of Kraft, Unilever, Flowers Foods and Hormel. And it’s amazing that SLE, in the last three years, spent more than a billion dollars to buy back 90 million shares of stock. Now the company’s inutile board may be forced to reduce its dividend to preserve cash — and this would be the second time since Barnes took over the helm.

Sara Lee is a $12 billion revenue company, and its iconic products should be immortalized in a Norman Rockwell painting. Unfortunately, SLE’s doddering board of directors wouldn’t know how to pour water from the toe of a boot if instructions were printed on the heel. These bungling mimes are clueless and should be flushed from their corporate “snivel” chairs.

I’d not waste investment dollars on SLE because there are too many better fish in the sea. The board needs a “eureka!” epiphany right away, because the company is becoming dangerously moribund, and rigor mortis is beginning to set in. Sell your stock.

Please address your financial questions to Malcolm Berko, P.O. Box 8303, Largo, Fla. 33775 or e-mail him at mjberko@yahoo.com. © 2010 Creators.Com