Jewel sues Kroger over Wellness Festival; departed CEO Rodney McMullen to be deposed
https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2025/04/11/singer-jewel-sues-kroger-mcmullen-wellness-fest.html?utm_source=sy&utm_medium=ptr&utm_campaign=local12Singer-songwriter Jewel and another co-founder of Kroger Co.’s annual Wellness Festival are suing the supermarket giant, claiming the company unjustly took control of the event away from them just as it turned profitable.
Story Highlights
- Jewel and a co-founder are suing Kroger for taking control of profitable Wellness Festival.
- Former Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen to be deposed April 18.
- Plaintiffs seek damages and ban on Kroger using their intellectual property.
Singer-songwriter Jewel and another co-founder of Kroger Co.’s annual Wellness Festival are suing the supermarket giant, claiming the company unjustly took control of the event away from them just as it turned profitable.
The case features an upcoming deposition of former Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen, who suddenly resigned March 2 following a board investigation of his personal conduct.
Wellness Your Way Festival LLC, a company in which Jewel has an ownership stake that was formed to operate the festival, and Inclusion Cos., her festival co-founder’s company, filed the lawsuit against downtown Cincinnati-based Kroger (NYSE: KR), the nation’s largest operator of traditional supermarkets, in December 2023 in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court. They accuse Kroger of breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, misrepresentation and unjust enrichment, among other causes of action, according to the complaint.
Kroger has disputed those claims and filed a motion to dismiss the case.
The plaintiffs are seeking an unspecified amount of damages and an order prohibiting Kroger from using Inclusion and Jewel’s intellectual and proprietary property.
Two key events are coming up this month in the case involving a high-profile celebrity and Cincinnati’s largest company. Plaintiff lawyers are scheduled to depose McMullen April 18, according to court filings. That date was confirmed this week, Brian O’Connor, lawyer and partner at downtown-based Santen & Hughes who is representing Inclusion, Wellness Your Way Festival LLC and Jewel in the case, told me.
And a hearing is set for April 28 for the judge to hear Kroger’s motion to dismiss the case.
The plaintiffs don’t specify damages and are seeking “damages in an amount to be proven at trial,” according to the lawsuit. But the plaintiffs lost more than $2 million in out-of-pocket costs and at least $5 million in lost future profits, the lawsuit alleges.
Trevor Drinkwater, CEO of Inclusion, an operator of retailer-sponsored, celebrity-backed festivals, and Jewel Kilcher, better known in the music world as simply Jewel, came up with the idea for a festival promoting mental and physical wellness, according to the lawsuit. They considered partnering with several national retailers and ultimately chose Kroger.
In December 2017, they sent a written partnership proposal to Kroger with plans for a five-year festival that Inclusion would fund, according to the lawsuit. Kroger would be considered a founding sponsor, get the right to approve all aspects of the event and encourage its suppliers to participate. Inclusion insisted on a five-year agreement, saying it took three years with another festival it operated to become cash-flow positive.
After some back and forth regarding details, the lawsuit says a Kroger executive replied, “Wanted to give you the good news that we are a go!”
Kroger never asked for a formal agreement.
Inclusion formed Wellness Your Way Festival LLC to produce the festival. Jewel received an ownership interest in that new company in return for supporting the festival and waiving her usual performance and promotional fees, the lawsuit states. Wellness Festival roots date back to 2018
The Wellness Your Way Festival was launched in 2018 in Cincinnati. It also took place in 2019 and 2021. Jewel, whose hit songs include “You Were Meant for Me” and “Standing Still,” was heavily involved. Over those years, the lawsuit says, she performed 12 musical shows, took part in 45 speaking panels, attended 16 VIP events for Kroger executives, attended 20 press events, was able to get 65 thought leaders and celebrities to participate at low or no cost and got Kroger executives on a Discovery TV show.
The event turned a profit for the first time in its third year, 2021, generating a $500,000 profit, according to the lawsuit. The organizers still had an accumulated debt of $2 million at that point.
Then, on April 1, 2022, the lawsuit states Kroger told Inclusion and Wellness Your Way Festival LLC it was terminating the arrangement with them.Plaintiffs accused Kroger of a “corporate bullying mentality that led to its breach of the partnership agreement and theft of the festival,” according to the lawsuit.
The event became the Kroger Wellness Festival and continues. Kroger and partner Advantage Solutions Inc. “went on to produce the highly profitable year-four event in 2022, and even more profitable year-five event in 2023, using the know-how, marketing materials, contracts and sponsor lists that plaintiffs had contributed to the partnership,” according to the lawsuit.
The event took place Sept. 27-28 in downtown Cincinnati and is planned for this year.
Kroger argues in its motion to dismiss that it never had an actual partnership agreement with Inclusion and Wellness Your Way Festival LLC. It never had a written agreement, so none of its executives ever signed such an agreement, Kroger alleges. A statute related to fraud requires that any contract that can’t be performed within one year be in writing.
Kroger also argues that even if the parties had entered a valid contract, “its purported terms satisfy none of the requirements of a legal partnership in Ohio. For example, partnerships are profit-sharing enterprises, but plaintiffs allege that they were to own the festivals in question and take all of the profits from themselves,” it said in its motion to dismiss.
Kroger goes on to refute each of the plaintiffs’ allegations, largely on the basis of the absence of a valid contract, in seeking a dismissal of the lawsuit. McMullen's deposition comes weeks after his resignation from Kroger
McMullen's resignation as CEO last month followed a Kroger board investigation of his personal conduct that, while "unrelated to the business, was inconsistent with Kroger’s Policy on Business Ethics,” the company said in a news release. No other details have been released. Lead director Ron Sargent was named interim CEO and chairman.
McMullen is being deposed because he was involved in the event’s development, had become friends with Jewel and exchanged emails with her as the problems arose, according to court filings.
“McMullen was personally involved in this partnership and these annual festivals – festivals that were crucially important events for both McMullen and Kroger,” the plaintiffs said in a court filing.
McMullen had mentioned the festival on several conference calls with investors. And he had told Jewel in a 2018 email, “I really appreciate our growing partnership.”
On April 7, 2022, after the partnership was terminated, “Jewel wrote Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen, with whom she’d developed a friendship over the years based on what she thought were shared values, explaining that it ‘appears we have been hijacked. I’d love to get on the phone or meet in person to resolve this if we can,’” according to the lawsuit.
But McMullen replied, “I’m not involved in planning of the Festival this year. That’s Colleen (Kroger Health President Colleen Lindholz)’s responsibility. Please communicate with her on this.”
No trial date has been set.
This is just one of multiple lawsuits Kroger is facing. Albertsons Cos. Inc. sued Kroger in December after Kroger’s planned $24.6 billion acquisition was halted by two courts due to antitrust concerns. Albertsons and Kroger each canceled the transaction the next day. Albertsons is seeking a $600 million termination fee from Kroger along with additional, unspecified damages.
Kroger also is being sued by C&S Wholesale Grocers, which is seeking to get a $125 million termination fee from Kroger. C&S had agreed to buy 579 stores Kroger planned to divest in order to get regulatory approval and avoid antitrust issues in the Albertsons deal. That deal, too, was canceled when the Albertsons acquisition didn’t happen.
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