Dollar General's Dreiling puts off retirement, laments deal loss

Dollar General on Thursday lost a potential merger partner but for now at least, is keeping its top executive.

Rick Dreiling, who a year ago announced plans to retire on or before May of this year, said Thursday he would remain Dollar General’s CEO and chairman through Jan. 29, 2016, or earlier if a successor is named. 

Shareholders of Family Dollar Thursday morning voted to approve a takeover of the company by Dollar Tree, eschewing a more lucrative offer from Dollar General, but which evidently came with far more antitrust risk.

“Today’s vote is a loss not only for Family Dollar shareholders, but also for consumers across the country who will not have the opportunity to benefit from the cost savings and efficiencies that we believe would have been created by a merger between Dollar General and Family Dollar,” Dreiling said. “As we have said throughout this process, the scale of this combination would have provided better value and greater selection to customers of both Dollar General and Family Dollar. Despite our best efforts over the past few months, Family Dollar’s lack of engagement and a contracted transaction timeline ultimately prevented us from completing this transaction.”