Kmart to Cut Benefits to Former Execs

Kmart Corp. will stop paying 20 former executives $2 million a year in special retirement benefits, the Detroit Free Press reported, citing Chief Financial Officer Al Koch.

The retailer pays about 220 former executives $4 million a year through its supplemental executive retirement plan, the paper said. It wants to continue paying about 200 people below the executive vice president level, the paper said, citing Koch. A committee of the company’s bankers last week asked a Chicago bankruptcy court to stop all payments, the paper said.

Payments to some of the 20 former executives, who were executive vice presidents or higher, were cut off June 1, the paper reported, citing an unidentified Kmart spokeswoman. Others were informed in the last few weeks that their payments would end July 1, the paper said.

None of the most recent Kmart executives, who received $28.8 million in loans months before the company filed for bankruptcy protection, is getting payments through the supplemental retirement plan, the paper reported, citing Koch.