Kroger named former Walmart executive Greg Foran as its chief executive officer on Monday, 11 months after the abrupt resignation of its previous CEO.
Foran has a reputation as a tech-savvy and detail-oriented leader. He led Walmart’s U.S. division from 2014 to 2019, where he focused on cleaning up stores, ensuring items were in stock, and improving the fresh produce selection. He also introduced online ordering and pickup, and accelerated Walmart’s digital capabilities.
Walmart has reshaped itself into a tech-powered retail giant that has leaned heavily into automation and artificial intelligence, and it’s one of the biggest competitive threats to Kroger, the largest stand-alone U.S. supermarket chain.
Shares of The Kroger Co. rose nearly 7% in early trading Monday after Kroger said Foran would lead the company.
Walmart has become a larger challenge to Kroger and other traditional grocers as Americans increasingly pick up their groceries along with other general goods that Walmart sells. Walmart currently controls around 21% of the U.S. grocery market, compared to 8.5% for Kroger, according to the market research company Numerator.
Kroger has also felt pressure from fast-growing discount chains like Aldi and Lidl and online behemoths like Amazon.
Kroger proposed a merger with Albertsons in 2022 as a way to better compete with its rivals. But the Federal Trade Commission and two states — Washington and Colorado — sued to block the merger in 2024, saying it would raise prices and lower workers’ wages by eliminating competition. Judges ultimately ruled that the merger should not proceed.
Kroger has struggled to adjust as customers increasingly embrace delivery, pickup and ship-to-home for their groceries. The company said in December that its e-commerce sales jumped 17% in the latest quarter.
In November, Kroger shuttered automated fulfillment centers in Wisconsin, Maryland and Florida and said it would monitor its five remaining facilities. The company said it found that delivering directly from its stores was faster and cheaper than using the automated facilities, where robots pick and pack groceries. Kroger said the closures could help make its e-commerce business profitable this year.
Kroger also recently expanded its partnerships with the third-party delivery services DoorDash and Uber Eats. For years, Kroger had limited what third parties could deliver and instead tried to meet demand with its own delivery drivers.
But Kroger has also found that it needs to tread carefully when experimenting with new technology. When some of its stores switched to digital price labels, which allow stores to change prices instantly, state and federal lawmakers questioned whether the company would use the technology to surge prices.
Kroger also got heat from lawmakers about a partnership with Microsoft that would place cameras in aisles and offer personalized deals to shoppers based on their gender and age.
Foran succeeds Ron Sargent, who has been Kroger’s interim leader since former CEO Rodney McMullen resigned last March. McMullen had been Kroger’s CEO since 2014 and was also the company’s chairman. Kroger said he resigned after an investigation into his personal conduct, which was unrelated to the business but violated its ethics policy.
Sargent will continue to serve as Kroger’s chairman to ensure a smooth leadership transition.
“Greg is a highly respected operator who knows how to run large-scale retail businesses, strengthen store execution and lead high-performing teams,” Sargent said in a statement. “His leadership style, focus on the customer, commitment to associates, and disciplined approach to execution are the perfect fit for Kroger.”
Foran, a New Zealand native, most recently served as CEO of Air New Zealand, where he also improved digital capabilities, led negotiations with the airline’s union and guided it through the pandemic.
Kroger, based in Cincinnati, has 2,731 stores operating under various brands, including Ralphs, King Soopers, Smith’s and Fred Meyer. It has 409,000 employees.
—By Dee-Ann Durbin, AP business writer