The Cincinnati-based retailer appointed lead director Ronald Sargent as interim CEO. Kroger shares were down about 1.3 percent shortly after the opening bell. The company, the nation’s largest traditional supermarket chain, will report fourth-quarter and full-year financial results on Thursday. McMullen had been with Kroger since 1978, starting as a part-time stock clerk in Lexington, Kentucky. He steadily moved up the ranks, holding several senior leadership roles—including vice president of planning and capital management, chief financial officer, and chief operating officer—before taking over as CEO in 2014. He was named chairman of the board in 2015. The company said the board was made aware of the personal conduct issue on Feb. 21 and hired outside counsel to conduct an independent investigation. It has formed a search committee to find McMullen’s permanent replacement. Over the past decade, the interim boss has worked in stores, sales, marketing, manufacturing, and strategy at Kroger. Sargent also spent about 27 years at Staples, where he was CEO from 2002 to 2016. He joined Kroger’s board as an independent director in 2006 and became lead director in 2017. McMullen’s departure comes about three months after a federal judge blocked Kroger’s bid to buy rival Albertsons, siding with the Federal Trade Commission in the view that the merger would stifle competition and lead to higher prices. A judge in Washington state also blocked the merger in a separate legal challenge from the state’s attorney general. Had it succeeded, the $24.6 billion acquisition would have been the largest supermarket merger in U.S. history. Soon after, Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons announced it was ending its merger agreement and sued Kroger for breach of contract, accusing the chain of failing to exercise its “best efforts” to get regulatory approval. Albertsons is seeking billions of dollars in damages from Kroger. This is a developing story and will be updated. — news from The Washington Post
