The new owners of Sara Lee have vowed to keep its 200 workers on the payroll – despite previously slashing jobs when they turned around failing chocolate firm Darrell Lea.
Sara Lee went into administration in October last year with debts of $55million, shocking many Aussies who regularly indulge in the brand’s supermarket aisle desserts.
But the keys to the iconic Australian frozen dessert brand’s factory on NSW’s Central Coast were handed to new owners Klark and Brooke Quinn on Tuesday.
The couple vowed to stick around for the ‘long run’ after meeting the staff whose jobs they saved.
‘Sara Lee does not exist without its 200 workforce,’ Mr Quinn told the ABC.
The keys to the iconic Australian frozen dessert brand’s factory on NSW’s Central Coast were handed to new owners Klark and Brooke Quinn on Tuesday, with the pair praising the company’s employees
‘A lot of these guys have been here for 40-plus years … they’ve given their whole lives to Sara Lee.’
Mr Quinn’s father, Tony – who founded the VIP Petfoods business which sold for $410million in 2015 – bought failing chocolate maker Darrell Lea from receivership for $11 million in 2012.
Mr and Mrs Quinn were credited with turning around the firm after a restructure saw more than 400 employees lose their jobs.
The couple even moved into the Darrell Lea’s Ingleburn factory to help nurse it back to financial health.
‘We lived in the factory for three years, seven days a week and being across every facet of the business, that was a good degree in what to do,’ Mr Quinn told A Current Affair.
The Quinn family sold Darrell Lea in 2018 for $200million.
But Mr Quinn, a former race care driver and three-time Australian GT champion, played down his business acumen over their recent acquisition and insisted they were in it for the ‘long term’.
‘It won’t be us that save Sara Lee,’ he said.
‘It will be the staff and the communities, it’ll be Australians.’
The ABC revealed that almost $10 million Sara Lee owes to unsecured creditors will not be repaid.
Mr Quinn said he had sympathy with those businesses but outlined that he and his partner had ‘no say in what happened in the past’.

Mr and Mrs Quinn (pictured) were credited with turning around the firm after a restructure saw more than 400 employees lose their jobs
Sara Lee was established in Australia in 1971 in Lisarow on the NSW Central Coast.
A desperate hunt was launched to find a new buyer for the company following its administration late last year.
The company operates in Australia, New Zealand, the Middle East and South East Asia.
Aus
Its most popular dessert is its French Vanilla Cheesecake.

Aussies are celebrating the news that Sara lee has been saved. Pictured is TV star Sophie Monk, once an ambassador for the brand.
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