A week after Market Basket’s board of directors fired chief executive Arthur T. Demoulas, three longtime managers at the supermarket chain who are Demoulas supporters met a similar fate.
The firings this week of Paul Quigley, Adam Deschene, and Esteban Alvarez prompted Demoulas to issue a statement expressing chagrin over their terminations. As with Demoulas, all three had been put on leave by the board as its law firm conducted an investigation over the summer, ostensibly into rumors that Demoulas and his allies were plotting a work disruption to protect his job as chief executive.
“These firings are alarming in that they continue to break down the fabric of Market Basket,” Demoulas said in a statement. “They are talented grocery store operators who are tremendous contributors to Market Basket’s success and to its culture. … These terminations are disheartening and a major loss for the Market Basket team.”
The firings add to the drama over the future of the 90-store supermarket chain, one that is beloved by New England shoppers for its low prices and personalized service. The Tewksbury-based company is primarily owned by Demoulas and his three sisters, who had bought out their cousins’ side of the business in 2014 to take full control, restore Demoulas as CEO, and end a highly publicized walkout prompted by the firing of Demoulas at the time.
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But Demoulas and his sisters have been at odds over how he runs the company, and the board has expressed frustration that he has not been more forthcoming about finances or more accommodating with succession planning.
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Earlier this month, the board discussed Demoulas’s fate in mediation with him, before firing him, and later appointing longtime chief financial officer Don Mulligan to take his place on an interim basis. The board had already fired two longtime Demoulas deputies, Tom Gordon and Joe Schmidt, in July. The fate of Madeline and T.A. Demoulas, a daughter and son of Demoulas’s who worked at the company but were also put on leave, remains unclear.
Jon Chesto can be reached at jon.chesto@globe.com. Follow him @jonchesto.