Dive Brief:
- Market Basket announced Thursday that it has named Chuck Casassa, a 50-year veteran of the New England supermarket chain, as president.
- The grocer also said that Interim CEO Donald T. Mulligan is retiring but will remain as an advisor to the company.
- The leadership changes come during a tumultuous period for Market Basket, which ousted former CEO Arthur T. Demoulas last year amid a family feud over management of the company.
Dive Insight:
A little over a week after a Delaware judge ruled the grocery chain was justified in its decision to fire Demoulas, Market Basket is moving ahead with leadership changes as it looks to position itself for the future.
Casassa began working for Market Basket as a bagger in 1976 and spent more than three decades as a store manager. In 2017, he became a grocery supervisor with oversight of more than 25 stores. Last year, Casassa became Market Basket’s director of operations after the chain fired Joseph Schmidt along with the chain’s director of grocery.
“Mr. Casassa’s leadership and dedication to Market Basket over the past 50 years is highly valued by the Board, and we cannot be more proud to have him serve as our President,” Board Chair Jay K. Hachigian said in a statement.
Mulligan became Market Basket’s interim CEO last September after the board ousted Demoulas. His retirement comes after more than 40 years with the company, including over 25 years as its CFO.
The past several months have been tumultuous for the beloved New England grocer. Demoulas’ ouster — which the board claimed was due in part to the longtime executive resisting oversight and fomenting a work stoppage — echoed a previous episode more than a decade earlier that led to consumer boycotts and a bitter succession feud that spilled out into public view.
Earlier this month, Delaware Court of Chancery Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster said Demoulas failed to prove his claims that Market Basket’s board of directors breached its fiduciary duties when it suspended him last May and subsequently fired him. The grocer alleged in a court filing on the day it terminated Demoulas that he had declined to provide an annual budget, did not give advance notice about significant spending and blocked members of the board from entering Market Basket’s headquarters.
While Demoulas is no longer on Market Basket’s executive team, the board noted in a statement that it “anticipates working with him productively into the future” given that he is a significant shareholder in the company.
