LA CROSSE, Wis. -- Kwik Trip Inc. has dropped Milwaukee Brewers baseball player Ryan Braun--suspended Monday without pay for the remaining 65 games of the 2013 Major League Baseball (MLB) season for violating its drug program--as an endorser for the Wisconsin-based convenience store chain, reported ESPN.com.
On Tuesday, Kwik Trip stopped all TV and radio commercials featuring braun, Gary Gonczy, the company's director of marketing and advertising, told ESPN.com.
The Brewers' outfielder had been linked with the company for four years.
"That deal is off," said John McHugh, Kwik Trip's manager of corporate communications, told The La Cross Tribune.
He said the company had hoped allegations that Braun used performance-enhancing drugs were not true, but once the suspension was announced, "it was a pretty simple decision" to cut him.
"We have core values of honesty and integrity. We expect those values from our co-workers, vendors and suppliers," McHugh said. "It doesn't matter who the person is. People don't get special treatment."
McHugh said this is the first time Kwik Trip has had to cut ties with a celebrity. The only other prominent athlete on payroll is former Green Bay Packers wide receiver Donald Driver.
"That guy exemplifies the values we have," McHugh said of the football palyer.
Kwik Trip was running a Ryan Braun Luncheon promotion where a winning entrant had a chance to bring one guest with him or her and have lunch with Braun at Ryan Braun's Graffito restaurant in Milwaukee, ESPN said.. The company pulled the promotion 11 days before it was slated to announce a winner. Gonczy said the Braun deal was arranged through a sports marketing company and that Kwik Trip expects to be paid back for the luncheon it will no longer hold.
La Crosse, Wis.-based Kwik Trip is the one of the largest convenience store chains in the upper Midwest. It operates more than 400 stores in three states: Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa.
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