• by Thom Forbes  @tforbes, September 13, 2011

Christopher J. "CJ" Fraleigh, the 47-year-old marketing and management veteran of General Motors and PepsiCo who was the anointed CEO at MeatCo, the interim name for one of the two forthcoming spinoffs of Sara Lee, has been sliced from the company like a piece of sausage, although the official announcement says that he has "resigned."

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

MeatCo will include such brands as Sara Lee, Jimmy Dean, Ball Park, Hillshire Farm, Chef Pierre and State Fair.

Analysts seem to have been caught off guard, although at least one source tells the Wall Street Journal's Joann S. Lublin and Julie Jargon that Fraleigh himself has had feelers out with headhunters for several months now. Another, however, tells them that the news was delivered face-to-face by Bennink on Friday and came as "a complete shock."

A source tells the Journal's reporters that Sara Lee's directors have determined that the company needs "a more accelerated, more focused approach on bringing innovation to the marketplace in a very fast manner."

The Chicago Tribune's Emily Bryson York writes that Fraleigh "has been credited with improved operations and increased marketing for Sara Lee's North American meats."

Bryson York points out, however, that sales for Sara Lee's North American Retail division dropped 2% in the most recent quarter as it passed along commodity price increases to consumers earlier than competitors did.

"It's a challenging market in general," says Morningstar analyst Erin Lash. "We dealt with rising commodity prices in 2007 and 2008, as well as soft consumer spending over the last few years." Lash believes both units are takeover targets, "given that they're worth more than (Sara Lee's) larger competitors."

"We would expect investors to likely view this as an incremental near-term negative, partly because Mr. Fraleigh's departure represents another disruption in a company that is already going through significant change given the dramatic cost savings initiatives that are being undertaken as the company gets ready to trade on its own as a standalone entity," Barclays Capital analyst Andrew Lazar wrote in a note yesterday.

Fraleigh joined Sara Lee as its CEO of Food & Beverage in January 2005. He had been general manager of the GMC-Buick-Pontiac division during 2004 and executive director of its advertising and corporate marketing from 2001 to 2004. Before that, he was a vice president at PepsiCo.

Fraleigh had been named CEO of MeatCo, which will run domestic retail and food services businesses, last January. A couple of weeks ago, Michiel Herkemij was named CEO of Sara Lee's international beverage business and was anointed CEO of "CoffeeCo," the other spin off, Crain's reported at the time.

CoffeeCo will include such brands as Douwe Egberts, Senseo, Pickwick, Maison du Cafe, L'OR, Cafe Pilao, Marcilla and Bimbo. The split is still expected to take place in the first half of 2012, according to several stories.

When Fraleigh was appointed to the board of directors of Darden Restaurants (Red Lobster, Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, et al.) in 2008, chairman and CEO Clarence Otis said that he "brings a wealth of leadership experience to Darden, particularly in the areas of brand building, marketing innovation and operations excellence."

Sara Lee CEO Marcel Smits will run the business while a successor is sought for Fraleigh, who will be available during the transition, Reuters reports. Says Smits in a statement: "We have a talented, experienced and highly capable North American senior team, and I look forward to working with them to drive the business forward during this transition."

Fraleigh has so far remained silent in public, and no reports have surfaced that he has uttered the "doofus" word, even among friends.