Singer Jewel Sues Kroger Over Wellness Festival
Grammy-nominated singer Jewel and a festival company have filed a lawsuit against The Kroger Co., accusing the national grocer of cutting them out of the partnership that launched what has become the annual Kroger Wellness Festival, as reported by the Cincinnati Business Courier.
According to the lawsuit, Trevor Drinkwater, CEO of Inclusion Cos., an operator of retailer-sponsored, celebrity-backed festivals, and singer-songwriter Jewel Kilcher, known professionally by her first name only, came up with the idea for a festival promoting mental and physical wellness. They considered partnering with several national retailers and ultimately chose Kroger. The Kroger Wellness Festival debuted October 2018 in Cincinnati as a way to support Kroger's Wellness Your Way platform, which encourages users to adopt a more holistic approach to health.
To produce the festival, Inclusion formed Wellness Your Way Festival LLC. According to the Cincinnati Business Courier, Jewel received an ownership interest in that new company in return for supporting the festival and waiving her usual performance and promotional fees.
The festival turned a profit for the first time in its third year. Then on April 1, 2022, the lawsuit noted that Kroger revealed it was terminating its arrangement with Wellness Your Way Festival.
As reported by the Cincinnati Business Courier, Wellness Your Way Festival and Inclusion filed their lawsuit against Kroger in December 2023 in Ohio's Hamilton County Common Pleas Court. The complaint accuses Kroger of breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, misrepresentation and unjust enrichment, among other causes of action.
Kroger has disputed the claims and filed a motion to dismiss the case. A hearing is set for April 28 for the judge to hear Kroger’s motion for dismissal.
In the meantime, plaintiff lawyers are scheduled to depose former Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen on April 18, according to court filings. McMullen resigned from the company March 2 following a board investigation of his personal conduct.
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Progressive Grocer reached out to Kroger for comment, but the company said that it doesn’t have anything to share outside of the court briefs.
The plaintiffs are seeking an unspecified amount of damages and an order prohibiting Kroger from using Inclusion and Jewel’s intellectual and proprietary property.
The last Kroger Wellness Festival was scheduled for Sept. 27-28, 2024, in downtown Cincinnati, but the event was canceled due to bad weather. Planning for the 2025 festival is underway.
The Kroger Family of Companies’ nearly 420,000 associates serve more than 11 million customers daily through a digital shopping experience and retail food stores under a variety of banner names. The Cincinnati-based grocer is No. 4 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2024 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America. PG also named Kroger one of its Retailers of the Century.
