Kohl’s CEO Ashley Buchanan’s affair with former Walmart executive Chandra Holt was retail’s dirty little secret – until he was fired for bolstering her business.
Buchanan, 51, was fired by Kohl’s earlier this month after an investigation revealed he had brokered a deal for the department store to sell products from 45-year-old Holt’s coffee startup, Incredibrew, detailed an explosive report in The Wall Street Journal.
The terms of the deal, which were “unusual” and favorable to Incredibrew, raised red flags for some employees. Buchanan was ultimately fired for breaking the retailer’s ethics code by failing to disclose his relationship with Holt.
While there was gossip among employees about a potential romance between Buchanan and Holt dating back years, Kohl’s Chairman Michael Bender, who had worked with the pair at Walmart a decade ago, was left out of the loop.
During a meeting, Bender finally demanded to know if he was dating Holt, to which Buchanan replied simply: “Yes,” according to the report.
The relationship, an open secret for years as the pair worked at overlapping retailers, culminated in the pair each filing for divorce from their respective spouses in 2020. Court records showed that the extramarital affair between Holt and Buchanan had a role in her divorce, according to the report.
Soon after, they moved into a $3 million stone house at the Vaquero Club, a wealthy Dallas suburb teeming with mansions, where they would be seen playing tennis together.
Two bosses of major retailers
Both Buchanan and Holt led major retailers over the years, with Holt leading Bed Bath & Beyond and another smaller Texas company.
Holt had also started Incredibrew and was marketing it to both Kohl’s and Michaels while Buchanan was in charge of each store.
The pair mostly kept quiet about their relationship, according to court documents, and people who worked with them. When Michaels tried to recruit Holt for a senior role soon after Buchanan became CEO in 2020, he didn’t disclose their relationship, one person familiar with the matter told the Journal. Holt declined to take the job.
Buchanan also failed to disclose his relationship with Holt to some merchants, who decided which products to sell to customers, when Michaels decided to add Incredibrew to its stores, according to the report.
When he was fired by Kohl’s, Buchanan claimed he just made introductions for merchants, but never required them to buy any specific products, one person who spoke with him said.
Legal repercussions
Kohl’s announced Buchanan’s firing on May 1, saying an investigation by outside attorneys found he had violated the company’s ethics code and was responsible for setting up a deal to sell Holt’s coffee products.
Buchanan had dictated the payment terms of the deal and the order was for hundreds of Kohl’s stores, according to the report.
Kohl’s noted the deal’s terms were “unusual” and favorable to the vendor, according to the report.
The investigation also uncovered that Buchanan had caused Kohl’s to enter a multimillion-dollar consulting agreement with Boston Consulting Group, where Holt served as an advisor at the time.
When interviewed for the investigation, Holt said she had known Buchanan for 10 years and they weren’t romantically involved when Michaels was trying to hire her.
She also said her new business, Incredibrew, hadn’t been compensated by Kohl’s.
Boston Consulting Group later terminated Holt’s contract as a result of the non-disclosure.
Walmart beginnings
Buchanan and Holt met in Arkansas in 2015 when she took a job as a vice president with Sam’s Club, the warehouse chain owned by Walmart. At the time, Buchanan was running Walmart’s dry grocery business.
When Holt later went on to work for Walmart, she, her then-husband and their daughter moved into a home in the Pinnacle Country Club, a gated golf community near headquarters, where Buchanan also lived with his wife and three daughters.
In 2017, Buchanan was named chief merchant for Sam’s Club, making him Holt’s boss. A few months later, she was promoted to lead Sam’s Club grocery business.
A year later, she left his group when she was appointed chief operating officer of the chain’s website.
Rumors spread about romance
When Buchanan and Holt worked in Northwest Arkansas, where Walmart is headquartered, word quickly spread about their unusually close relationship.
Buchanan, Holt and their children would often spend time together without their spouses, according to the report. At the same time, Buchanan would discuss his marriage troubles with friends and coworkers, former and current Walmart executives said.
Buchanan, whose wife had a serious illness that mostly kept her at home, would also express concern to colleagues about his wife and how her illness might impact their children.
Despite the troubles, Buchanan continued to grow in his career, and he was even considered as a contender to become Sam’s Club CEO. The role, however, didn’t go to him, and he was instead promoted to another executive position at Walmart.
Buchanan later left Walmart around Christmas in 2019 to become CEO of Michaels, a craft store based in Dallas. But after moving his family to Southlake, Texas, he promptly filed for divorce from his wife.
Around the same time, Holt, who was just promoted at Walmart, was also experiencing troubles in her marriage, according to the report.
Holt and her husband separated in March 2020 and filed for divorce in October. They would call off the divorce twice before officially separating in 2024.
Then, in 2021, Holt left Walmart to become the CEO of Conn’s HomePlus, a regional home goods retailer based near Houston, according to the report.
While both Buchanan and Holt moved to Texas, they continued to keep their romantic relationship quiet, at least for a bit.
Top executives at Michaels claimed they didn’t know the two were an item until Buchanan hired more Walmart employees, who shared old gossip about the close pair just as his divorce proceedings became public.
Before Buchanan’s divorce was finalized in 2021, private-equity firm Apollo Global Management agreed to buy Michaels and take it private in a $3.3 billion deal.
The CEO stood to get a whopping $32 million, according to divorce filings from Buchanan’s ex-wife’s lawyer.
Buchanan’s ex-wife sued to set aside their settlement plan, accusing Buchanan of fraud for not disclosing the amount he was set to receive.
He later disputed the claim in court, and the terms of the final settlement were not immediately known.
Coffee company leads to CEO downfall
Holt left Conn’s Home Plus in October 2022 to start Incredibrew, a coffee company that sells K-cup pods infused with supplements, vitamins and protein.
After getting her business up and running, she was hired as CEO of Bed Bath & Beyond in early 2024, just as the homegoods chain came back from bankruptcy. But, by mid-June, she was out due to a leadership reorganization, the company said at the time.
Around the same time, Buchanan was being considered to join Kohl’s as CEO, with him taking on the role in January of this year.
Late last year, Incredibrew K-cups were also added to the inventory at Michaels, which several employees told the Journal they found odd as the retailer didn’t have a grocery section, and only sold some chocolate and candy by the cash register.
Holt began promoting her coffee brand on LinkedIn, sharing videos of herself talking about the product’s health benefits. The videos, which appeared to be filmed in the home she shared with Buchanan, were later reposted by him.
Within months of Buchanan starting at Kohl’s, the department store was preparing to buy Incredibrew products. While vetting the new vendor, a Kohl’s employee raised some concerns, people familiar with the investigation said. The company’s board was then notified, and an outside law firm began investigating, according to the report.
Then on April 30, Bender, who had known the couple for a decade and was on the board that approved Buchanan’s hiring, confronted the couple about their relationship.
The next morning, Kohl’s issued a statement that Buchanan had been fired for cause, and Bender stepped in as interim CEO.
In addition to leaving his post, Buchanan must now forfeit all equity awards from Kohl’s. He also has to reimburse the company on a prorated basis for his $2.5 million signing bonus.
Kohl’s 2024 financial report showed a 7.2 percent decrease in net sales to $15.4 billion. In addition, Kohl’s comparable sales dropped by 6.5 percent.
“We have identified key areas of focus and are taking action in 2025 to reposition Kohl’s for future success,” Buchanan said earlier this year. “Our customers expect great products, great value, and a great experience from Kohl’s. I am confident that the areas we identified will deliver on what customers want and expect from Kohl’s.”
This is a developing story…
