Schnucks to Pay Former President $5M Following Wrongful Termination
Midwestern grocer Schnuck Markets must pay nearly $5 million to a former president following a ruling that the St. Louis-based grocery fired him without cause, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has reported. Hucker sued Schnucks for wrongful termination in October 2016.
The grocer will pay $4.5 million to Anthony Hucker, currently CEO of Jacksonville, Fla.-based Southeastern Grocers, who claimed he was terminated without cause after hard-discount grocer Save-A-Lot, based in Earth City, Mo., offered him its CEO position. According to the news outlet, Hucker claims to have approached Schnucks CEO Todd Schnuck in an effort to dismiss his noncompete agreement, but never received a response. He was fired shortly afterward.
The court ordered the parties involved to arbitration, the Post-Dispatch said, and the arbitrator issued the award in favor of Hucker in October. Moreover, the defendants were ordered to pay $11,000-plus in post-award interest for 12 days in November.
Southeastern Grocers named Hucker COO in March 2016, a little more than one year before he stepped into the interim CEO role following the resignation of then-CEO Ian McLeod. Hucker became McLeod's permanent replacement as president and CEO in August 2017.
Before his time at Schnucks, Hucker was president of Ahold Delhaize USA – then Ahold USA – banner Giant Food, based in Landover, Md., and held a variety of international and domestic leadership positions at Walmart.
Founded in St. Louis in 1939, Schnuck Markets Inc. is a third-generation family-owned grocery and pharmacy retailer operating 119 stores in Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Iowa. The company is No. 31 on Progressive Grocer’s 2018 Super 50 ranking of top grocers in the United States.