Kohl’s paid huge dividend days after ditching orders

NEW YORK – Fresh details have emerged illustrating how Kohl’s, one of the US’s largest department store chains, paid a US$109m dividend to its shareholders – just days after it had told suppliers via conference call it did not intend to pay for goods it had ordered. Many of the goods had already been manufactured but Kohl’s – a member of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition – used its tightly worded contracts to cancel orders with no liability.

Recent weeks have seen several such stories emerge – of major brands opting out of paying suppliers, using questionable get-out clauses in contracts. However, Scott Nova, executive director of the US-based Worker Rights Consortium told Apparel Insider Kohl’s has been “particularly aggressive and unaccountable.”