Updated Aug 18 at 11:16am ET.
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Kroger has named Nate Faust as its new head of e-commerce, bringing in an executive with two decades of experience in digital retail and logistics. He most recently worked on waste-free delivery systems and has a background in scaling online businesses.
This hire matters because making digital sales profitable is a core part of the company's future. While Kroger is great at selling groceries in person, the costs of picking and delivering orders often eat into profits. Bringing in a specialist suggests the company is doubling down on making its $13 billion digital arm a more efficient and profitable engine.
Source: PRNewsWire
Kroger has closed at least 39 stores so far as it moves toward a goal of shutting 60 locations across its various brands. These closures affect nine different banners, which are the different store names Kroger operates under in various regions.
While closing stores can sound like a sign of trouble, it is often a routine part of managing a massive retail footprint. The company is likely pruning underperforming spots to focus its resources on more profitable locations and its growing digital business. For long-term owners, this is a standard cleanup rather than a shift in the company's health.
The Commerce Department is preparing to revise a key price index, a move that typically happens to keep federal statistics accurate as shopping habits change. For a grocery giant like Kroger, these numbers are more than just data; they often dictate how much the company can raise prices without losing customers. If official inflation looks lower, it might signal a cooling in the food price spikes that have helped boost revenue across the industry lately.
Source: WSJ
By partnering with Instacart to bundle pharmacy orders with grocery deliveries, Harris Teeter is trying to make its service more essential for busy households. This move helps Kroger defend its turf against rivals like Amazon and Walmart, who are also racing to combine healthcare and food delivery. For long-term owners, this is a small but useful step in making the company's digital app a one-stop shop for daily needs.
Source: PRNewsWire
Ukrop Homestyle Foods issued a voluntary recall for six products after fears surfaced that aluminum slivers could be inside. While recalls are common for a chain that stocks thousands of items, they carry a small cost for handling the logistics and can briefly dent customer trust in the prepared foods section. This appears to be a limited issue with a specific supplier rather than a broad failure in Kroger's own food safety systems.
Analysts recently adjusted their expectations following a flurry of price target cuts in late June. Most analysts remain positive, with 21 of 44 rating the stock a buy and an average target price suggesting 25% upside.
Management has a long streak of clearing the bars they set for themselves, beating profit expectations in seven of the last eight quarters. They are reliable at hitting their targets.
| Expectation | |
|---|---|
| EPS | $1.05 |
| Revenue | $34.65B |