Artie T., is back. The beloved CEO of the New England grocery chain Market Basket, Arthur T. Demoulas, was reinstated Wednesday night in what experts are calling an impressive testament to the power of passionate employees.
"You have demonstrated to the world that it is a person's moral obligation and social responsibility to protect a culture which provides an honorable and a dignified place in which to work," Arthur T. Demoulas said at a rally Thursday morning where loyal employees whooped and hollered as cars passed by honking to show their support.
The ouster of Demoulas, or Artie T., as his employees called him, prompted six weeks of protests and boycotts of the chain. It ended Wednesday night with a deal in which Artie T. and his allies will buy the 50.5% stake in the company owned by his rival cousin, Arthur S. Demoulas.
Artie T.'s management team, which was fired after protesting his forced departure as chief executive, will also be reinstated, the company said in a statement. He will run the company alongside its current two co-CEOs as the deal goes forward.
"We're back to work, full steam ahead," said Joe Garon, who worked at the company for 49 years until he was fired last month.
In a Somerville, Mass., Market Basket store that had been all but empty a few weeks ago, customers were already coming back and phones were ringing "off the hook," said Jessica Rosa, an employee of five years who works in the customer service department. Shelves of produce, dairy and meat had been empty during the protests as suppliers stopped deliveries. She expected them to be full again by Monday.
"There are a lot of hugs happening today," she said.
Some experts question whether Market Basket, which employs 25,000 workers throughout its 71 stores in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine, will be able to recover from six weeks of shrunken sales and bad publicity. A plan offered by the board this week had proposed closing 61 stores to keep the company afloat.
But Garon, who works as a buyer at the company's Tewksbury, Mass., headquarters, said he expected the company to do even better going forward. Loyal customers who spent weeks protesting will return, he said, and new customers will come to check out what all the fuss is about.
"I think we'll have more customers than ever," he said. "People will want to know what is so special about Artie T. and Market Basket."
It's a question many have asked of the ousted CEO. After all, some CEOs of late have made headlines for firing employees or earning millions. But Demoulas is a "people person" who knows everyone by name and makes it a habit to make personal connections with employees, customers and anyone else he encounters, Garon said.
Demoulas also encourages every employee to move up the corporate ladder and achieve their full potential, Garon said. Many of Market Basket's top managers in the corporate office started out bagging groceries in the store as teenagers. And while some members of the company's board wanted to give profits back to shareholders, Demoulas wanted to use them to open more stores and hire more employees.
Now employees are ready to get back to work, Garon said. Part-timers had been laid off because there wasn't demand for their help, and many others didn't show up to work to join protests. Employees like Garon weren't sure if they would ever receive a Market Basket paycheck again.
"Tonight we raise a glass to Artie T. and each other as we have achieved the most improbable of upsets," said a statement on the Save Market Basket Facebook page. "Tomorrow we go to work and never, in the history of people going to work, will so many people be so happy to punch the clock."
Comments on the Facebook page indicate customers will be back too.
"See you at 7 AM tomorrow to buy anything on the shelves!!!!" wrote Patricia Desmond. "I don't even have a dog but I'll buy dog food if needed!!"
The events at Market Basket over the past months will be taught as a case study in business schools going forward, said Daniel Korschun, a professor at Drexel University who has been following the protests.
"This is the best evidence that we have yet that stakeholders can shape the direction of a company," he said.
Companies across the country increasingly focus on shareholders rather than employees, suppliers and customers, he said. Market Basket shows that it doesn't have to be that way.
It also shows the benefits of finding an executive who can form strong relationships with employees, suppliers and customers, he said.
Those benefits were evident in Artie T.'s 12-minute speech Thursday morning. He thanked the crowd, which continued to cheer, and yelled thanks back, and praised them for teaching professors, CEOs, business analysts and journalists around the country the power of loyalty.
Artie T. came out on top of this family feud, which has gone on for decades. But the resolution isn't about winning a feud, he said, but about something bigger.
"You proved, all of you, that your grass-roots efforts to save your company and harness thousands of thousands of people was not about family conflict or a Greek tragedy, but more about fairness, justice and a solid moral compass that unites the human soul," he said.
Twitter: @AlanaSemuels
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