Kroger to cut about 3,000 corporate jobs over three years
The cuts, confirmed in a memo viewed by Bloomberg News, would shrink Kroger's corporate workforce from about 8,200 to roughly 5,200 under CEO Greg Foran
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Chart: KR, one-minute prices, three sessions
Kroger plans to eliminate about 3,000 corporate roles over the next three years, a reduction of more than 37% of its approximately 8,200 corporate workforce, according to a memo viewed by Bloomberg News. The company says it will share more detail on the cuts in the coming months.
CEO Greg Foran, who took over in February 2026, wrote in the memo that Kroger should cut duplicative work and lean more on technology, according to Reuters. He said the savings would help fund price cuts and investment in in-store staff. Reuters also reported that Kroger has lowered its annual identical sales target and wants to cut prices to compete with Walmart and Aldi, pointing to consumers who have grown more frugal under pressure from high gas prices.
The move follows smaller cuts Kroger has already made, including about 1,000 corporate roles in June 2025 and fewer than 1,000 layoffs disclosed in an August 2025 memo after a federal judge blocked Kroger's proposed merger with Albertsons. The Cincinnati Business Courier reported the latest reduction would leave Kroger with roughly 5,200 corporate employees, one of the largest such cuts in the company's 143-year history.
The scale of the cuts points to a shift in focus, from managing the fallout of the collapsed Albertsons deal toward tightening Kroger's own cost structure. Albertsons is pressing an $8 billion damages claim against Kroger over that failed merger, with a two-week trial set to begin in Delaware Chancery Court later this month, and trimming corporate overhead now builds a cushion against that litigation. The cuts also follow a period of steady capital returns, including a dividend Kroger declared in September, suggesting management wants to protect that payout by cutting costs elsewhere rather than scaling back shareholder distributions. Whether Kroger can execute the cuts over three years without disrupting operations remains an open question.