According to an announcement made by the grocery behemoth Kroger on Friday, June 20, it would close over sixty sites across the country over the course of the next eighteen months.
The sales report for the first quarter of 2025 from Kroger indicates that the business anticipates a “modest financial benefit” as a result of the closure of “approximately 60 stores.”
On top of that, Kroger has stated that it plans to put the money it has saved as a result of the closures into the “customer experience.”
According to the article, Kroger will provide available positions in other stores to all of the associates who are currently working at locations that are closing.
Erin Rolfes, a spokesman for Kroger, stated that the firm “will not be releasing the store list at this time.” This statement was made in reference to the locations that are being closed down.
At the beginning of the fiscal year, Kroger had a total of 2,731 stores, which means that the reductions are equivalent to around 2% of all of the company’s locations.
How come Kroger is closing approximately sixty locations?
During a conference call with Wall Street analysts on Friday, June 20, Interim CEO Ron Sargent discussed the closing of sites. He stated that the unproductive stores that were being liquidated were located all across the United States.
On Friday, Kroger restated its intention to spend between $3.6 billion and $3.8 billion this year on capital expenditures. These expenditures include money from Kroger for the construction of new stores, as well as money for expanding and remodelling existing stores.
Read Also: Wisconsin plant announce closure and layoffs; company moving operations to Ohio
Sargent took over as CEO of the company when Rodney McMullen abruptly resigned on March 3 as a result of an internal ethics enquiry. However, the closures occurred after Sargent took over the post. A nationwide search for a new chief executive officer is now being conducted by the grocery store chain.
Following two waves of layoffs, closures have taken place.
Several months after Kroger announced two waves of layoffs of an undefined number of non-store personnel in the spring, the company has now revealed that it will be closing stores.
“We are focusing on key priority areas that support our go-to-market strategy. As part of this prioritization work, we announced team restructures and a small number of eliminated roles to improve efficiency,” Kroger stated
In addition to its headquarters in downtown Cincinnati, Kroger has 409,000 employees around the country.
