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Market Basket chairman defends company after David D’Alessandro’s op-ed
"These are baseless tropes from Arthur’s scorched earth PR campaign aimed at scaring the public."
In a scathing response to a Boston Globe op-ed Friday, Market Basket chairman Jay K. Hachigian aimed to set the record straight on allegations about Market Basket’s board of directors.
Market Basket
“I don’t know what your motive was in writing to the Globe but I wanted to take a moment to tell you some facts,” Hachigian, an attorney with Gunderson Dettmer, wrote in the letter shared with Boston.com on Tuesday.
In the Globe op-ed, former CEO of John Hancock Financial Services David D’Alessandro hypothesized where he believes the current dispute between CEO Arthur T. (“Artie T.”) Demoulas and his sisters and the board will end.
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“Those outside board characters will load millions of dollars in debt on this company and/or allow outside investors to take ownership positions. And they will sideline or fire Arthur T. to do so,” D’Alessandro wrote.
Hachigian refuted D’Alessandro’s claims, arguing they were unfounded.
“These are baseless tropes from Arthur’s scorched earth PR campaign aimed at scaring the public – it makes me wonder whether you have collaborated with Arthur’s PR team,” Hachigian wrote in the letter.
A spokesperson representing Market Basket’s board of directors, confirmed Tuesday that Hachigian wrote the letter.
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Read Hachigian’s full response below:
Dear Mr. D’Alessandro:
I read your Op Ed in the Boston Globe last week and have taken a few days to think about what you said. You say that you don’t know Artie T. or any of the family but then proceed to make various assumptions about the family that aren’t true and come to a conclusion based on those untrue assumptions that would really damage Market Basket’s business. I don’t know what your motive was in writing to the Globe but I wanted to take a moment to tell you some facts.
Ironically, we have a lot in common. We are both grandsons of immigrants. Mine were Armenian immigrants who escaped a horrific genocide in 1915. My grandmothers were orphaned, and one was held at a refugee camp for years in Port Said, Egypt, where her mother died of malaria. Like you, my grandfather also owned and operated a small grocery store in North Providence, Rhode Island and had many fiercely loyal and happy customers. My grandfather did what he could to provide for his wife and six children but also, never grew that business into anything more than a beloved corner grocery store.
You claim that Arthur’s sisters “recruited venture capital types and a lawyer to be members of the board of directors” as though we are faceless hired guns there to do the sisters’ bidding. Not even close. Let me offer the truth. In high school, my wife worked at the Market Basket in North Andover as a cashier and attended high school with one of Arthur’s sisters. My father-in-law and his brother ran the family Colombo Yogurt business, started in Andover and they sold yogurt to the first Demoulas Super Market on Dummer Street in Lowell before anyone knew what yogurt was. By chance, the sister that went to high school with my wife and her family became our neighbor over 20 years ago. I was not recruited – I have had a relationship with the Demoulas family for over 20 years and if you include my wife’s relationship it goes back nearly 50 years. I am also quite independent and would never do anyone’s bidding.
You veer even further from the truth when you claim that Arthur’s sisters are busy installing their children into succession. It is the Board’s decision to elect officers of the Company and there has not been a single Board discussion about installing any Demoulas children into succession other than Arthur’s children. Then from whole cloth, you claim that the Board will be taking on millions of debt, adding new investors, stunting growth, and buying tasteless tomatoes from California. These are baseless tropes from Arthur’s scorched earth PR campaign aimed at scaring the public – it makes me wonder whether you have collaborated with Arthur’s PR team.
How does an accomplished business executive who was once CEO of an important company in Boston get away with such an irresponsible screed. Would you say no to the John Hancock Board when it asked for an annual budget or operating plan? Would you turn down a board request for advance notice or prior approval of large capital outlays? Would you have denied Board requests to meet other executives in the company? And would you force your successor into the CEO role without any input from the board? Sometimes in life things are simpler than they appear. This isn’t an argument among family about money or control – despite the talking points of Arthur’s PR campaign. It is about accountability; i.e., how to manage an $8 billion company so that it thrives for the next 100 years. It is easy to say “bring Artie T. back” but do you have any idea how many of our associates would be very unhappy with Artie and his former lieutenants back?
While Arthur’s former lieutenants have been telling the media how unfairly they have been treated, senior executives and thousands of dedicated associates have worked tirelessly to produce company-wide sales and customer counts that are up since May. Your oddly timed broadside coincided with an announced mediation with Artie in September and the near completion of our investigation. So the family is doing what you called for – getting together to try to resolve their differences – yet you encourage behavior now that would be dangerous to the entire business. Why?
The constructive path forward, which our associates and customers richly deserve, is more likely to succeed if people aren’t irresponsible and instead speak and act based on facts. All that said, I would welcome the opportunity to host you at the Market Basket office in Tewksbury where I could introduce you to the talented executives running the company. I would like to meet you and I believe you would be impressed with our management team.
Jay K. Hachigian
Chairman of the Board
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