Sara Lee Bids $321 Million for Athletic Wear Maker

Sara Lee Corp. carved out a bigger piece of the consumer goods pie Monday, agreeing to buy Champion Products Inc., in a deal that values the athletic-wear company at about $321 million.

Best known for its frozen baked goods, Sara Lee is expanding its non-food operations. It said it will soon begin a tender offer for all outstanding Champion Products shares at $77 each, beating out a $61-a-share bid from Phonicam Inc.

Champion stock climbed $12.125 to close at $75.75 in American Stock Exchange trading Monday.

Rochester, N.Y.-based Champion Products makes athletic, recreational and leisure wear products that are sold to educational institutions, including college bookstores. It reported sales of $219 million in 1988.

A Champion Products official said the company has 4.17 million shares outstanding on a fully diluted basis, which would make the Sara Lee offer worth $321 million.

The purchase would be the latest in a string of small acquisitions by Sara Lee, which has annual sales of more than $10 billion. Last week, it announced plans to buy Hygrade Foods Products Corp., a Southfield, Mich.-based meat processor, for $140 million from Britain’s Hanson PLC.

Owns Hosiery Maker

“Sara Lee is absolutely in an acquisition mode,” said securities analyst Janet Mangano of Josephthal & Co. Mangano said the company’s recent moves were strategically logical because “you can do only so much through product development and by adding new capacity on your own.”

Last year, the company struck a deal to buy hosiery maker Adams-Millis Corp. for about $80 million.