Kroger Plans to Cut About 3,000 Corporate Jobs, or 37 Percent of Its Office Staff, Over Three Years

CINCINNATI — Kroger Co. plans to eliminate about 3,000 corporate roles over the next three years, roughly 37 percent of its office headcount, as new Chief Executive Greg Foran moves to simplify operations at the largest traditional U.S. supermarket chain.

The cuts, detailed in a memo viewed by Bloomberg News and sent to staff after a companywide call on Monday, will span various functions. Kroger has approximately 8,200 corporate employees. The company expects to begin sharing details about affected roles in the coming months. The reductions are intended to free resources for lower prices, store experience and frontline pay.

"Simplifying means making faster decisions and deploying more resources where they matter most," Foran wrote in the memo. He said the company has more layers and overhead than needed and should reduce duplicative work as technology evolves, including the growing use of artificial intelligence to make workflow more efficient.

Foran, a former Walmart Inc. executive who took the top job in February, is implementing the chain's biggest price cuts in years and pushing for friendlier, faster service. The operator of Fred Meyer and Ralphs is also taking a harder line in supplier negotiations. Kroger laid off nearly 1,000 corporate employees last year. The new round would be one of the largest in the company's 143-year history.

The plan arrives as the grocer faces slowing growth, heightened competition and persistent inflation concerns. No financial targets, severance terms or store-level cuts were disclosed in the memo. The 3,000 figure is the number of corporate roles the company said it will eliminate. The 8,200 figure is the current corporate headcount. The three-year timeline is the schedule in the memo. Shares rose about 1.5 percent in early trading on the news.

The scale of the reduction is large relative to Kroger's office workforce but small relative to its total employment. The company operates thousands of stores under banners that include Kroger, Ralphs, Fred Meyer, Harris Teeter and others, and employs hundreds of thousands of people in stores and warehouses. The memo does not address those roles. It is limited to the corporate layer.

Foran's background is relevant to the timing. He spent years running Walmart's U.S. business in the mid- to late 2010s, a period in which that company cut costs, invested in lower prices and tightened store operations. Kroger has not published a formal turnaround plan with numbered milestones. The memo is the first public indication of the size of the corporate reduction he intends.

The company has already made one round of corporate cuts. Last year it eliminated nearly 1,000 office jobs. That reduction was smaller in absolute terms and was presented as a cost-saving measure. The current plan is larger and is framed as a structural simplification rather than a one-time expense cut. The memo does not say whether the 3,000 includes attrition, open positions or only active employees.

Technology is cited as part of the rationale. Foran wrote that the company should reduce duplicative work and adapt as technology continues to evolve, specifically noting the rise of artificial intelligence. The memo does not name systems, vendors or the number of roles expected to be replaced by software. It treats AI as one factor among others, not as the sole driver.

The competitive context is straightforward. Walmart and Amazon continue to expand grocery volume. Regional chains and discounters have gained share in some markets. Inflation has eased from its peak but remains elevated enough that shoppers still compare prices. Kroger has said it is implementing its biggest price cuts in years. The memo links the corporate cuts to the ability to fund those cuts, along with store experience and frontline pay. No dollar amounts are attached to any of those uses.

Supplier negotiations are another area Foran has emphasized. The company is taking a more aggressive approach, according to people familiar with the strategy. The memo does not detail the terms or the categories involved. The connection drawn in the document is that fewer layers of corporate review can speed decisions, including decisions about what the company will pay for goods.

The three-year horizon means the reductions will not all occur at once. The company said it expects to start sharing details about affected roles in the coming months. That phrasing leaves open the possibility that the first wave will be identified before year-end and that later waves will follow. No dates for individual rounds are given.

Kroger is based in Cincinnati and is 143 years old. The size of the planned cut relative to its corporate staff makes the reduction one of the largest in its history by that measure. The company has not published a list of prior corporate reductions large enough to allow a direct comparison, so the characterization rests on the absolute number relative to the current office headcount.

Investors reacted positively in early trading. The stock was up about 1.5 percent. The move is consistent with the market's usual response to cost-cutting announcements when the company is profitable and the cuts are limited to overhead rather than revenue-generating operations. The memo does not project a savings figure, so any estimate of earnings impact remains outside the published information.