Kohl’s new CEO is making more than double the retailer’s previous top executive as the company struggles with store closures and falling revenue

Ashley Buchanan, who became CEO of Kohl’s in January, landed an executive pay package totaling about $20 million, which is more than double that of the retailer’s previous chief executive Tom Kingsbury. His pay package totaled about $9 million.

Buchanan’s base salary is $1.475 million, and he earned a $3.75 million signing bonus, according to an SEC filing dated Nov. 22, 2024. His employment contract also includes a one-time payment of $2 million of restricted stock that he can collect after one year with the company; a one-time $15 million payment of restricted stock units that can be paid out evenly after the first, second, and third anniversary with the company; and an annual long-term equity incentive award target of at least $9 million, with eligibility for annual equity awards starting this year.  

The new CEO also gets an annual car allowance of $21,600, personal use of company aircraft totaling up to $180,000 per year, legal fee reimbursements of up to $25,000, an annual health care package worth up to $50,000, and personal financial advisory services worth up to $10,000 per year.

“The one-time recruitment awards, including the signing incentive and [restricted stock unit] awards, were granted as part of the overall package to incentivize Mr. Buchanan to accept the CEO role,” according to the company’s proxy statement. 

Kohl’s didn’t respond to Coins2Day’s request for comment.

Buchanan previously served as CEO of The Michaels Companies and as chief merchandising and chief operating officer of Walmart’s e-commerce business. When he became CEO of the Michaels Companies in 2019, he made a $1.2 million base salary and signing bonus of almost $3.7 million, which covers certain Walmart bonuses he forfeited by leaving, a CNBC report shows.

Meanwhile, Kohl’s performance has been lackluster. In March, the retailer reported a 9.4% drop in fourth-quarter net sales, cut its dividend, and changed its guidance for a 5%-to-7% sales decline in 2025. This was even worse than Wall Street had projected. Analysts polled by market analysis firm FactSet had projected a comparable sales decline of less than 1% for the year.

Earlier this year, Kohl’s also held corporate layoffs just weeks after announcing store closures for 27 locations. At the time of the layoffs, Jen Johnson, SVP of corporate communications at Kohl’s, previously told Coins2Day these decisions were taken “very seriously” and were done to “support our commitments to increase efficiencies and improve profitability in the business for the long-term benefit of our associates and customers.”

Even Buchanan, who was freshly minted as CEO, conceded Kohl’s was having a tough go.

“Over the past few years, we have implemented a significant amount of change across our assortment, value strategies, and store experience in an effort to attract new customers,” he said during the company’s most recent earnings call in March. 

“While the intention of this strategy to engage a new customer has been important, it has also caused friction with our core customer,” Buchanan added, referring to the previous leadership’s choice to limit certain merchandise categories like petites and jewelry. 

While “key growth categories,” including home decor and baby gear, performed relatively well last quarter, that “probably did not compensate for the space they have taken away from other categories dear to the core customer such as fine jewelry, intimates, home, and petites,” Carol Levenson, director of research at GimmeCredit, wrote about Kohl’s in an analyst note shared with Coins2Day dated March 13.

Even Kingsbury recognized his mistakes as he was on the way out the door. 

“We thought, ‘We can do more with a lot less,’ and that didn’t work out for us,” Kingsbury said during a Kohl’s earning call in December 2024.