Shearer’s Foods family leaders to step down after sale
Wind Point Partners, Chicago, is collaborating with C.J. Fraleigh, who will join Shearer’s as chairman and CEO. Fraleigh was most recently CEO of Sara Lee North America and has 25 years experience in consumer products. Bob Shearer, 61, who founded Shearer’s in 1974 with his father, late mother and brother, Tom, will step down as CEO. His wife, Melissa, also 61, who has been serving as vice president of communications, will also step down, according to reports.
Bob Shearer says he isn’t sure if his brother, Tom, who is in management at Shearer’s, will stay on. No other Shearer family members are involved in the food business, which is the largest producer of private-label salty snacks in North America and the largest producer of kettle-cooked potato chips in the world, according to the company.