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In anticipation of having to explain Arby’s sales performance to Wall Street next month, Wendy’s/Arby’s Group President-CEO Roland Smith announced a leadership change for the troubled chain. When Q4 and full-year 2009 sales are reported next month, Smith at least has evidence the company is trying to make something happen. So Arby’s President-CEO Tom Garrett left the company, effective immediately, and Smith stepped in as interim steward of the brand. Garrett may become an Arby’s franchisee.

Arby’s certainly needs some help. Through the first nine months of 2009, Arby’s systemwide same-store sales were down 8.0% from an already awful -3% for 2008. Franchisees’ same-store sales dipped to -8.6% from -2.4% a year earlier, and Arby’s store margins were 13.8%, compared with 16.5% in 2008. That’s not going to work.

The chain introduced its $5.01 Combos menu/promotion as a first-phase fix, but the company in November told analysts that Q4 was starting badly and in October “Arby’s same store sales have further softened.” Uh-oh. The second phase of the recovery plan was to be expanding the Arby’s dollar menu to additional markets. “We firmly believe longer term, as we balance our premium products with new everyday value strategy, sales and margins will return to normal levels,” Smith told analysts in November. But this marketplace is tough to defeat, and it must still be getting the better of Arby’s.