Source: Michael Fielding, MEATINGPLACE, 9/12/11

Sara Lee Corp. announced today that CJ Fraleigh, chief executive officer of North America, has resigned from the company to pursue other opportunities. While the company searches for a successor, Chief Executive Officer Marcel Smits will assume responsibilities for leading the North American business.

In January, the company announced its intention to split into two separate publicly held companies — “CoffeeCo” (International Coffee & Tea) and “MeatCo” (North American Meats). At that time the company named Fraleigh CEO of the MeatCo unit.

Last week, the company appointed Michiel Herkemij as chief executive officer of “CoffeeCo.” The company remains on track to execute the spin-off in the first half of 2012.

“CJ played an important role in taking the North American business to this stage in its development,” Jan Bennink, executive chairman of the board of Sara Lee Corp., said in a statement. “We now believe that a different approach is needed to transition the North American business into a pure-play company.”

The surprise announcement likely was part of the reason that Sara Lee shares were trading at $17.03 Monday morning, down 1.4 percent. It was the latest not-so-good news for a company that has seen its profit drop 41 percent during its fourth quarter, which ended July 2. The North American retail business also took a hit with a 2.2 percent drop in net sales.

“We now believe that a different approach is needed to transition the North American business into a pure-play company,” the company said in a statement.

Fraleigh joined the company in January 2005 as chief executive officer of Sara Lee Food & Beverage. He was appointed to chief operating officer — North America in November 2007 and his most recent position in January 2009.

Prior to joining Sara Lee, he served as general manager for General Motors’ GMC-Buick-Pontiac division. Prior to that he had served in marketing and general management positions at PepsiCo.

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