--- title: "Kohl's Burned Through Four CEOs in Four Years. Now It's Trying to Find Its Footing." description: "Kohl's has posted three straight years of falling sales, churned through four chief executives in roughly four years, and watched its stock lose more than 65% in a single 12-month stretch. A back-to-basics reset is now trying to stop the bleeding." category: "Companies" category_url: https://boursel.com/category/companies author: "Rafael Ortiz" published: 2026-06-28T01:43:00.000Z updated: 2026-06-28T01:43:00.000Z canonical: https://boursel.com/article/kohls-burned-through-four-ceos-in-four-years-now-its-trying-to-find-its-footing tags: ["kohls", "retail", "department-stores", "turnaround", "sephora"] --- # Kohl's Burned Through Four CEOs in Four Years. Now It's Trying to Find Its Footing. Kohl's has posted three straight years of falling sales, churned through four chief executives in roughly four years, and watched its stock lose more than 65% in a single 12-month stretch. A back-to-basics reset is now trying to stop the bleeding. Few American retailers have unraveled as publicly as Kohl's. The Wisconsin-based department-store chain reported [fiscal 2025 net sales of about $14.8 billion, down 4%](https://investors.kohls.com/news/news-details/2026/Kohls-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-and-Full-Year-Fiscal-2025-Financial-Results/default.aspx) from a year earlier, with **comparable-store sales** — revenue at stores open at least a year, which strips out openings and closures — down 3.1%. Its shares, above $60 earlier in the decade, traded in the mid-teens this spring, and Kohl's strung together about a dozen straight quarters of falling sales, [CNBC reported](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/27/how-kohls-lost-its-way-and-is-trying-to-become-relevant-again.html). ## A revolving door at the top The leadership churn alone tells much of the story. Michele Gass left under investor pressure in 2022. Tom Kingsbury, ex-Burlington, steadied operations before exiting in early 2025. His successor, Ashley Buchanan, lasted under four months: Kohl's [fired him in May 2025](https://www.retaildive.com/news/kohls-ceo-ashley-buchanan-fired-conflicts-of-interest-vendor-transactions/746843/) after an investigation found he had steered the company toward a vendor tied to a personal relationship. Board chair Michael Bender stepped in as interim chief and was made permanent in late 2025 — the chain's fourth CEO in roughly four years. ## What went wrong The damage predates the churn. **Activist investors** — funds that buy a stake to force change — circled in 2022: Macellum Advisors, with about 5% of the stock, accused management of mismanaging the business, and Starboard Value floated a takeover near [$64 a share](https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/22/business/kohls-buyout-bid-activist-investor/index.html), valuing Kohl's around $9 billion. Kohl's courted bidders but never closed a deal. The strategy missteps were just as costly. Management cut fine-jewelry and petite-clothing sections central to Kohl's core suburban shopper, while a push for younger customers gained little traction. That left the chain stranded between full-price department stores and **off-price** rivals — TJ Maxx, Ross, Burlington — that sell brand-name goods cheap and have taken share from both sides. By late 2024, quarterly comparable sales were falling at high-single-digit rates. ## The one thing that worked Not everything failed. The **Sephora at Kohl's** beauty partnership, launched in 2021, became the clearest proof the stores could still pull shoppers — surpassing [$1.4 billion in sales in fiscal 2023](https://www.gcimagazine.com/retail/brick-and-mortar/news/22780397/kohls-now-expects-sephora-partnership-to-exceed-2b-in-sales-by-2025), and drawing customers who shopped far more often than the average Kohl's buyer. Bender is building the turnaround around that. The company is rolling out more beauty brands, has reversed the jewelry and petites cuts, narrowed a confusing assortment, and added low-price impulse buys near checkouts. "We do not consistently have the right product, in the right quantity, in the right places," Bender has conceded — a blunt diagnosis of a self-inflicted wound. Kohl's closed 27 weak stores in 2025, trimming to roughly 1,150 locations, and says no further closures are planned. ## The financial picture There are signs of stabilization beneath the gloomy top line. Operating cash flow jumped to about **$1.4 billion** in fiscal 2025 from $648 million, and cash on hand rose sharply, per the company. But the quarterly dividend has been slashed to **$0.125 a share**, from above $1.00 earlier in the decade — a concrete measure of ground lost. For fiscal 2026, Kohl's guided to sales between a 2% decline and flat. ## A sector under siege Kohl's troubles are not unique. The middle-market department store has been dying for over a decade: Sears went bankrupt in 2018, JCPenney in 2020, and Macy's has been shrinking. Off-price chains and e-commerce have squeezed the format from both ends. Kohl's one structural edge is its off-mall footprint, free of costly anchor-mall leases. Whether that, plus Bender's back-to-basics reset, is enough to make the chain relevant again is the question the next few quarters will answer — and, after four CEOs, it is running low on second chances. ## Sources - [How Kohl's lost its way — and is trying to become relevant again](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/27/how-kohls-lost-its-way-and-is-trying-to-become-relevant-again.html) - [Kohl's reports fourth-quarter and full-year fiscal 2025 results](https://investors.kohls.com/news/news-details/2026/Kohls-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-and-Full-Year-Fiscal-2025-Financial-Results/default.aspx)