After 50 years of manufacturing frozen cheesecakes, pies, crumbles and ice cream in Australia, Sara Lee Holdings has gone into voluntary administration.
Well, I never used any of their products, so I can't say if it's gonna be a sad loss or not.
As of Tuesday, Vaughan Strawbridge, Kathryn Evans and Joseph Hansell of FTI Consulting have been appointed as voluntary administrators of Sara Lee Holdings Pty Ltd.
Looks like Sara Lee decided to take a cheesecake break. Guess they just needed some 'administrative icing' on the cake
Got the inside from the folk doing the financials - they are uncovering layer upon layer upon layer of problems….
Good riddance!
Tbh their quality and taste is much better than the cheaper alternatives.
The biggest impact this will have is the reduced "not nessa Sarah Lee" dad jokes
Brand and factory probably still worth something.
Darrell Lea has really made progress since someone bought it, based on the shelf space it now holds.
Did they somehow go broke without going woke?
The All Purpose Butter Pound Cake that I missed never available to Victoria…
Thought you could get it at some of the wholesale outlets?
Really? Where??! I can only buy them when I go interstate.
Closure of Sara Lee is going to have a big impact on the aluminium tin foil tray industry.
hope it doesnt affect the tin foil hat industry or else i will be in trouble.
Used to be a favorite when on special. Now Coles brand cheesecake it's my go to. Much better value and it tastes so good 🤤
At least her brother Bing Lee is still thriving!
Bummer. Their Ultra Chocolate ice cream was good and I am not aware of any comparable alternatives available from a supermarket.
The Connoisseur brand completely annihilated their mediocre 'premium' ice cream range
Connoisseur was absolutely killing them (and everyone else) back in the 90's when they were still owned by Browns. Since then their quality has gone down. Café Grande is a prime example, where the chocolate coated nuts have shrunk in size, reduced in quantity and the Grand Marnier swirl is pretty much undetectable.
However, as much as Connoisseur is still better choice for most things (including plain vanilla), Sara Lee Ultra Chocolate was still the best choice if all you wanted was just good old plain chocolate ice cream that is nice and dense and not pumped full of air.
When it comes to the most intense chocolate ice cream, the winner is hands down the original recipe Homer Hudson Chocolate Rock. My wife developed that recipe and in one of the production trials they had issues with the machinery and "overdosed" on the chocolate. We had over 30 tubs of the best ice choc ice cream ever in the freezer! The regular supermarket version that shipped to consumers was still very, very good though.
The company behind Homer Hudson also went into administration and the current version is not quite up there with the original recipe from the early 2000's.
Ah this takes me back. Connoisseur cookies & cream from that era was gold.
And, don't laugh, the Black & Gold choc chic 2l tubs were pretty good. As were the original Bulla Frozen Yoghurt 2 litre tubs.
Is homer Hudson still around? I feel like I haven't seen it since like 2015
The great bankruptcy has begun.
2023 has had a record number of insolvencies, next year will be even greater.
There was far too much money hanging around over covid and now it's drying up rapidly.
many companies are overweight and a recession is needed to bring everyone back down to earth.
I just hope these airlines, supermarkets, retailers come back down to earth soon. They're running me and alot of people like into the ground. Just last year I used to buy 3 Ltr milk bottle per week. It's now down to 1 Ltr a week.
It's deliberate.
Wonder where it's drying up to though. BlackRocks and Vanguards? Submarine manufacturers? South Asia inefficiency economies?
When i was young i legit thought that cake thing they slice in the ad was only for rich people lol
I think you mean the undoubted luxury of a Viennetta ice cream. I was sure that was what the millionaires had for dessert.
loved viennetta as a kid, was very, very underwhelmed having it as an adult!
Sara Lee used to have the 2nd best ice cream after connoisseur back in the day and a lot of their other frozen desserts used to be excellent. Their formulas changed a while back and i know their ice cream wasnt as good as it once was.
Yes I agree! Used to love their “French vanilla” and “Rocky Road” ice cream then one day it started tasting awful. Didn’t buy again!
Yup, I really rated their Vanilla, whenever connoisseur was out of stock or if sara lee was on special, always went for their vanilla. close in taste and texture to Connoisseur and slightly cheaper.
Their formulas changed a while
Can you name me one well known brand that hasn't reformulated?
Although I don't eat any of this stuff anymore, I do occasionally check out the products & the ingredients list. Every few years I notice lower quality, the addition of water as an ingredient, the addition of more flavour like ingredients & emulsifiers is just sad. All because of trying to lower costs in a competitive marketplace. A race to the bottom, like so many other industries. Eventually if the company fails, it just ends up getting bought by another larger corporate, or winds up & sells off assets or restructures.
Over a period of decades, food products (albeit confectionery/desserts in this case) have become food like products.
Can you name me one well known brand that hasn't reformulated?
Golden North haven't changed the recipe or formula for most of their ice cream / products in over 50 years. The only thing they've changed is the size/volume of some ice cream products & their wrappers/tubs.
The only thing that's ever caused a change over the decades has been supply chain shortages or stoppages all together.
maybe 50 years ago Sara Lee frozen pastry desserts were a real treat in our family.
{sniff}
Working in the FMCG industry, news was of no surprise. What they specialise in has been a stagnant/declining segment for a while. Anything new they brought to the market seemingly lasted no more than a short while before being deleted, and their core product lineup was stuck in a timewarp. Though personally, the sticky date was a winner and hopefully sticks around. I wouldn't be surprised a new owner is found.
Gonna miss bending cutlery trying to cut a slice of their frozen cheesecake, only crazy people leave it out to thaw.
I'll miss them, so much nostalgia.
Hopefully will still be around. The owners are in receivership, it's unclear whether the brand is sustainable.
They made tasty frozen cakes, their banana cake is always good so is their carrot cake.
30 odd years ago my mum used to buy the "package was broken but good enough to eat" Sara Lee frozen sponge cake, and dessert etc
Those were delicious and we were on tight budget. Those were real treat.
We were poor and those little things really made my day as a kid.
I wish I was a kid again happiness can be so simple.
Thank you Sara Lee for giving me a good childhood memory. Sorry to see you go
Your lucky you were raised by “ normal “ people and not hippies ,
we got dried banana as a “ treat “ .
They probably would have saved themselves if they only used 10% of sugar they use in their products. It would be healthier, save cost, taste better which probably lead to sell better.
The realisation that sugar kills didn't help.
Sara Lee Has Gone into Voluntary Administration in Australia
So?
Going to miss their cheesecakes. I got no use for my chainsaw now.
Their staff must feel desserted