As of October 27, 2026, Kroger chief executive Greg Foran has laid out a three-part plan at the company's October 20 investor update in New York, targeting roughly 3 percent comparable sales growth excluding fuel and pharmacy by 2029. The diagnosis is unusually blunt for an investor day: inconsistent store execution and operating costs that grew faster than sales cost the company share. For brands selling through the banner, the recovery plan reads first as an on-shelf availability problem.
A share loss the CEO attributes to execution
The asset list Foran offered explains why the plan is framed as execution rather than reinvention. Kroger runs approximately 2,700 stores in 35 states, a roughly $18 billion e-commerce business, a $40 billion Our Brands portfolio, and a loyalty base covering about 95 percent of sales. With that much infrastructure in place, the gap between current results and the target sits in the last hundred metres, at the shelf.
What 110 openings and $4 billion are meant to buy
The plan commits to about 110 new stores in high-return markets through 2029, sharper everyday prices with simpler promotions, and $4 billion in annualized cost savings by 2029 to fund the investment. It also sets targets of 3 to 6 percent compound annual growth in adjusted EBITDA and 7 to 11 percent in earnings per share, numbers that only work if existing stores improve, not just the new ones.
The 95 percent loyalty card base
Almost every transaction is tied to an identified household, which is the quiet advantage in this plan. Availability data from a loyalty-linked store can be joined to a known shopper's purchase history, so a stockout becomes a named household that did not buy rather than an anonymous gap on a shelf audit. That connection is what makes distribution coverage measurable in revenue terms.
Why on-shelf availability is the first test
Foran noted that Americans spend approximately $2.5 trillion a year on food, including more than $1 trillion on food away from home, which frames the competitive pressure as much as the opportunity. If a banner loses share while costs rise faster than sales, the cheapest recovery is to stop losing sales that were already in the basket, and the most common cause of that loss is a product that is listed but not on the shelf.
The Indiana store that showed the gap
He described an unannounced visit to an Indiana store where seafood sales were up more than 80 percent and rotisserie chickens more than 50 percent, an anecdote that carries a specific operational message. Those categories respond to display, freshness and replenishment rhythm, so the lift came from execution rather than assortment. Multiply that variance across 2,700 stores and the size of the opportunity becomes visible.
How to audit a 2,700-store network without visiting it
Field visits do not scale to a footprint this size, so the practical route is a combination of syndicated shelf data, retailer-provided inventory signals and a small rotating physical sample. The table below sets out what each source answers and where it fails, because the failure modes decide how much weight a single number deserves in a review meeting.
| Source | Question it answers | Blind spot | Review cadence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Syndicated shelf audit | Is the SKU on shelf this week | Timing lags the shelf | Weekly |
| Retailer inventory feed | Is stock in the DC or the back room | Does not see the shelf | Daily |
| Physical sample | How does the shelf actually look | Too few stores to generalise | Monthly rotation |
| Loyalty basket data | Did households stop buying | Cannot separate out-of-stock from switching | Weekly |
FAQ
What did Kroger actually commit to?
About 3 percent comparable sales growth excluding fuel and pharmacy by 2029, roughly 110 new stores in high-return markets, $4 billion in annualized cost savings and simpler promotions.
Why does the plan start with availability?
Because the CEO attributed share loss to inconsistent store execution, and a listed product that is not on the shelf loses sales that were already in the basket.
How large is the loyalty data advantage?
About 95 percent of sales are tied to a loyalty card, so availability gaps can be joined to identified households rather than measured as anonymous shelf gaps.
What should a brand ask for first?
The on-shelf rate by SKU against distribution coverage, because the difference between the two numbers is where the revenue leaks.
