Sara Lee has posted a fourth-quarter loss of US$695 million due to various challenges including high wheat costs, sluggish economy and acquisition-related write-downs, according to Sara Lee Corp. on Thursday (August 7, 2008).

The result was in sharp contrast with this year's third quarter results and last year's fourth quarter when the company earned a profit of US$242 million and US$117 million respectively.

Net sales in the fourth quarter increased 12.2 percent on-year to US$3.51 billion from US$3.48 billion.

Sara Lee said it incurred a loss of US$102 million for the full fiscal 2008, compared with last year's profit of US$504 million. Sales during the year also increased 10 percent to US$13.2 billion, up from US$12 billion in fiscal 2007.

Sara Lee's North American Retail Meats unit posted US$48 million profit for its fourth quarter operating income, up from US$27 million in the same period of 2007. Operating income for the full year was US$175 million, compared with US$94 million last year. Net sales increased 6.4 percent to US$643 million in the fourth quarter, as an 8.5-percent increase in retail meat sales was partially offset by a 19.4-percent fall in non-retail commodity meat sales. The unit's full year net sales rose 3 percent to US$2.4 billion.