KANSAS CITY – Sara Lee Corp. (SLE) is looking to increase efficiency as it combats rising commodity costs for its sliced-meats business, company executives said Friday.
At the center of its efforts is a new, $140 million plant in Kansas City. The facility, which was opened to the media Friday, uses robotic systems to process meat from raw cuts to finished products packaged and ready for supermarket sales. Compared to a traditional plant, the new facility is twice as fast, requires half as many employees and uses 35% less energy, executives said.
Sara Lee said the new plant, which will account for about half its lunch-meat production in North America, should help to hold down retail prices that have been driven higher by rising commodity costs. Beef and pork prices have climbed sharply in the last year due to rising feed costs and increased export demand, among other factors.
Last quarter, the company said commodity costs for its North American business were up seven percentage points from a year ago. The company has implemented price increases during the past 12 months of 4% to 8%, driven largely by the rise in commodity costs.
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