After receiving backlash from customers over the firing of George Zimmer, the Board of Directors of Men’s Wearhouse issued a statement explaining why they fired him and gave an inside look into the internal struggle at the retailer.
In a press release issued on their site, the board said “Our actions were not taken to hurt George Zimmer. Rather we were focused on what we believed to be in the best interests of Men’s Wearhouse, as well as shareholders and employees.”
According to the board, Zimmer actually has not been the executive chairman of the retailer for over two years. In that time, the release said, Zimmer “advocated for significant changes that would enable him to regain control” but was unsuccessful.
Some of the issues that divided Zimmer and the board, according to the release, were that he refused to “support” the new CEO Doug Ewert and several management teams members. The board also states that Zimmer wanted to sell Men’s Wearhouse to an investment group; a move the board claimed “would threaten our company culture.”
According to the release, “Mr. Zimmer presented the Board with the choice of either a) continuing to support our CEO and the management team on the successful path they had been taking, or b) effectively re-instating Mr. Zimmer as the sole decision maker,” according to the release.
The board claims after having several discussions with Zimmer, the decision was made to let him go.