Kohl’s has finished his new CEO Ashley Buchanan after an investigation determined that he ordered the retailer to participate in transactions of suppliers involving conflicts of unleashed interests.
The president of Kohl, Michael Bender, as an interim CEO, from immediately. In relation to the appointment, Bender will resign as a member of the audit, compensation and nomination and environmental, social and government committee, according to the regulatory presentation of the retailer.
The news comes almost four months later Buchanan, Who had previously been the CEO of the Michaels arts and crafts chain, took over the work on January 15. Buchanan’s appointment marks the third CEO of Kohl’s in three years while department stores fight to reverse slow sales.
Kohl’s said Thursday that Buchanan’s dismissal is not related to his performance, financial information, operations results and did not involve any of his other employees.
Kohl’s will carry out a search for a permanent CEO and said he will appoint a new president in due time. The company could not be contacted immediately to comment. Buchanan did not immediately return a message sent to his LinkedIn account.
According to the presentation of the stock exchange and securities, the termination of Buchanan follows an investigation carried out by an external lawyer and supervised by the Board Audit Committee. He discovered that Buchanan had ordered that Kohl’s driving business with a supplier founded by an individual with whom Buchanan has a personal relationship in “very unusual terms favorable for the supplier” and that also made Kohl’s celebrate a multimillion -dollar consulting agreement with the same individual who was part of the consulting team.
He also discovered that in no case Buchanan revealed this relationship as required under Kohl’s code of ethics.
In relation to its termination and in accordance with the terms of its capital awards agreements, Buchanan will lose all the capital awards he received from the company, including the recruitment awards made as of January 15, according to the presentation. Buchanan must also reimburse Kohl’s for a proportional portion of its signature incentive for an amount of $ 2.5 million, according to the documents.
As a result of the Buchanan termination, the Board has decided to withdraw its nomination for the election as director of the company at the annual shareholders meeting of the company that will be held on May 14.
Buchanan had happened to Tom Kingsbury, who stayed as an advisor and is holding his position at the Kohl Board until his retirement next month. Kingsbury served as an interim CEO of Kohl in December 2022 and was appointed his Permanent leader in February 2023.
The dismissal comes at a time when Kohl’s, which operates 1,600 stores throughout the country, is fighting with slow sales. Its average income buyers have withdrawn discretionary expenditure compared to prices still high due to needs. He also faces a hard competition from Walmart and Amazon, who have improved their fashion offers at affordable prices.
And like other retailers, he faces uncertainty about President Donald Trump’s expansive tariffs.
On Thursday, Kohl’s offered a preliminary vision of sales and profits for the current quarter that showed continuous weakness, although the expected results are on the way to overcome Wall Street estimates. He said he hopes to inform a decrease in comparable sales, which come from established physical stores and online channels, in the range of 4.3% to 4%, and a loss of 24 cents to 20 cents per share for the first fiscal quarter.
Analysts expected the loss of profits per share of 54 cents and a fall in comparable sales of 6.4%, according to Factset.
He hopes to inform the final results of the first fiscal quarter on May 29.
The company’s shares, based in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, increased almost 9% in morning trade.
