Update at 4:20 p.m. HE on May 1
The scandal struck the Kohl corp in difficulty.
On Thursday, the Kohl board of directors said that he had dismissed the director general Ashley Buchanan due.
“An investigation carried out by external councils and supervised by the audit committee of the board of directors determined that Mr. Buchanan had violated the company’s policies by ordering the company to engage in suppliers who implied conflicts of non -disclosed interests, which the board of directors decided,” the company revealed on Thursday morning.
A file with the Securities & Exchange Commission indicated that Buchanan “had ordered that the company was putting business with a seller founded by a person with whom Buchanan has a personal relationship on very unusual conditions favorable to the saleswoman and that he also made sure that the company also concluded that the company also revealed that in the company was only Buchan Disclose during consultation. Code of ethics. “”
In addition to being dismissed, Buchanan must lose all the prices of the shares he received from the company, including the recruitment prices awarded in January. Buchanan must also reimburse the KOHL for a pro rata part of its signature incentive in the amount of $ 2.5 million.
The deposit did not identify the individual with whom Buchanan had a personal relationship. However, the Wall Street Journal identified Chandra Holt as a romantic interest of Buchanan, which they both worked at Walmart years ago, and that Holt is a consultant and the founder of Incredibrew, a brand of coffee steeped in vitamins and minerals. Before Kohl, Buchanan was CEO of Michaels cos.
Kohl stressed that Buchanan’s termination was not linked to the performance, financial reports or operating results of the company, and that it did not involve any other staff of the company.
Ashley Buchanan
Courtesy
Michael Bender, who has been chairman of the council of the retailer for a year, and director since July 2019, has been appointed interim CEO. The company should hire a search firm to find a permanent CEO.
Investors have experienced a kind of opportunity in the change – as unexpected – and exchanged KOHL shares up 7.6% to $ 7.21 on Thursday, leaving a market capitalization of $ 802.6 million.
“The Board of Directors has fully confidence in Michael to serve our customers and partners as an acting CEO and engage in our commitments to our shareholders,” said John Schlifske, president of the Kohl appointment and ESG committee, in a press release. “Michael brings more than three decades of experience in leadership in retail and consumer goods companies, having been CEO of Eyymart Express, and in senior roles at Walmart, L Brands and Pepsico.”
Kohl said his board of directors planned to announce a new chair “in due course”.
The Tenomonee Falls retailer, in WISC., Provided a preliminary perspective for the first quarter of 2025, the projection of comparable sales would be down 4.3% to 4%. Operating profit is observed between $ 40 and $ 45 million, and diluted share per share should go from 24 cents to 20 cents. Kohl plans to announce its first quarter results on May 29.
Buchanan had been developing a new recovery plan after the last two CEOs, Tom Kingsbury and Michelle Gass, were unable to reset Kohl despite intense efforts – from the addition and deletion of brands to the reconfiguration of the store layout to highlight the better efficient categories.
More recently, Buchanan has developed a plan that has reinforced the proprietary brands, which generally offer greater value for buyers and better margins for retailers. Sonoma for clothing and the FLX for sportswear are two of the best private brands in the company.
Buchanan’s plan also called to restore categories and abandoned offers on coupons in the private brand program. It also paid more attention to fine jewelry, interior decoration and small, an impulsive article often displayed near the cash areas and continuing to prioritize the beauty areas of Sephora.
Kohl’s also made significant real estate changes this year, including the closure of its San Bernardino, California, electronic production center and 27 retail locations. The retailer still operates around 1,000 stores.
Last month, TD Cowen, a leading global investment bank and a financial service company and a TD Securities division, put Kohl to a “liquidity watch” report evaluating cash flows and balance sheets in retail. “Kohl’s leverage has increased significantly in the past year, given the negative trends in profitability in the middle of a persistent drop in sales canvas,” reported TD Cowen. TD Cowen also noted that the Meunione Falls retailer, Wiscingon, focused on the value, has 353 million dollars in debt in July 2025 which must be refined. “The current effective rate of the note is 4.25%, and we think that there is a risk that any new debt is probably issued at a higher rate.” Kohl finished the fourth quarter with 134 million dollars in cash.
Neil Saunders, managing director of Globaldata, said: “The sudden departure of Ashley Buchanan from Kohl’s is a blow on a bruise for the chain of stores of the besieged department stores. Although the dismissal is not linked to performance, it gives the impression that Kohl is in the perpetual state of chaos and this raises some questions about the reasonable dligence on its appointment.
“It also means that Kohl is without permanent captain at a time when the ship is far from being in a state of navigation,” added Saunders. “It is a distraction that the company does not need and can afford badly. Kohl now needs to find someone with the skills required to implement a quick turnaround and bring the business back to the front foot. Given the deep problems of the chain, this could be a major challenge. ”
In the meantime, Bender is in charge.
He was president and chief executive officer of Eyemart Express, an optical retailer, from January 2018 to April 2022, having previously acted as president from September 2017 to January 2018. Before joining Eyyart Express, Bender held various executive management positions at Walmart Inc., more recently as chief of the world’s electronic commerce. Earlier, he held management positions at Cardinal Health Inc., Victoria’s Secret for L Brands Inc. and Pepsico Inc. He is currently director of acuity brands. Bender will remain on the board of directors, but will withdraw from certain committees of the Board of Directors on which he thus serves that his role as president while he is acting CEO.
