Business
“Mr. Demoulas’ passion for the company and his care for the associates remains unchanged,” a spokesperson for the ousted CEO said Wednesday.
Arthur T. Demoulas’s firing was “predetermined,” a spokesperson for the ousted Market Basket president and CEO alleged Wednesday.
“Mr. Demoulas’ passion for the company and his care for the associates remains unchanged,” Justine Griffin said in a lengthy statement firing back against Market Basket board members who voted Tuesday to remove Demoulas from his post.
The decision came amid a long-simmering corporate feud between Demoulas and his sisters, who together control more than 60% of the company. The board previously suspended Demoulas, two of his children, and a few of his top lieutenants last spring.
Read the statement from Demoulas’s spokesperson:
Arthur T. Demoulas is deeply disappointed that mediation failed despite his very determined efforts to reach a resolution. Over time, it became clear to us that this was not a good faith effort by the board or his sisters to reach agreement on the issues created by their abrupt actions placing Arthur T. Demoulas, his family and members of his senior management team on leave. It is now crystal clear that they had no intention of reinstating Mr. Demoulas.
As we said on May 28, the Board’s actions are a farcical cover up for a coup. The so-called investigation was designed from the start to falsely tarnish the reputation of Mr. Demoulas and his leadership team. Mediation has now demonstrated that to be true. These three board members and the sisters who elected them have removed the senior leadership of the company and all independent board members. All of this is in clear violation of their fiduciary duty – they took a company that was operating at peak performance and recklessly threw it into turmoil and did so in a needlessly public manner and on baseless grounds fabricated from the start.
Their predetermined actions are further made clear by the fact that they fired Mr. Demoulas in a 10:30 PM board meeting last night, without providing him any meaningful opportunity to be heard, in violation of the company bylaws.
Throughout this ordeal, Mr. Demoulas has remained committed to his single goal – to return to Market Basket to work alongside the 32,000 Associates. That has been his sole focus since the unwarranted actions of May 28 and remains his focus today. He knew that there was a path to resolution and he was confident that if the board shared these priorities, agreement could be reached. That is why the failure of mediation is so deeply disappointing to Mr. Demoulas. He firmly believed that there was a way. That proved not to be true.
Mr. Demoulas’ passion for the company and his care for the associates remains unchanged.
Sign up for the Today newsletter
Get everything you need to know to start your day, delivered right to your inbox every morning.
