The Kroger Co.

Grocery Retail & SupermarketsFounded 1883

Last reviewed: July 2026

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The Kroger Co.

Grocery Retail & SupermarketsFounded 1883

Reviewed by Swet Parvadiya

Last reviewed: July 2026

Acquisitions

The Kroger Acquisitions

Total Acquisitions

$17.8B

Disclosed Deal Value

Home Chef

2018

$700M

Why

Kroger's acquisition of Chicago-based meal kit company Home Chef for approximately $700 million in 2018 reflected a strategic judgment that the meal kit market represented a meaningful opportunity to win higher-frequency, higher-basket purchases from millennial households seeking the convenience of meal planning without the full commitment of restaurant dining. Home Chef was the third-largest meal kit company in the United States at the time of the acquisition, with a subscriber base of several hundred thousand households and a direct-to-consumer subscription business complemented by a growing in-store retail meal kit presence.

Impact

The Home Chef acquisition gave Kroger a branded meal solution that could be sold both through the subscription e-commerce model and as a physical in-store product—a hybrid model that addressed the subscription model's high churn rates by allowing occasional or lapsed subscribers to purchase individual meal kits at retail without a recurring commitment. The ability to manufacture Home Chef kits and sell them across Kroger's 2,700+ stores created an immediate distribution advantage that no pure-play meal kit company could match.

Outcome

Home Chef has grown significantly as an in-store product within Kroger's stores, where the brand's kits are merchandised in the fresh food sections as a high-margin, high-convenience offering. The subscription business continues to operate but has faced the same structural churn challenges that have constrained every subscription meal kit company. Home Chef's revenues have grown meaningfully under Kroger ownership, and the brand represents one of the more successful retail-to-digital or digital-to-retail acquisitions in the grocery sector.

Roundy's Inc. (Pick 'n Save, Metro Market, Mariano's)

2015

$800M

Why

Kroger's acquisition of Roundy's Inc. For approximately $800 million in 2015 added three distinct grocery banners: Pick 'n Save and Metro Market in Wisconsin, and the premium Mariano's banner in the Chicago metropolitan area. The deal represented Kroger's entry into the Chicago market—one of the largest U.S. Metro areas in which it had lacked significant presence—as well as a meaningful expansion in Wisconsin, where Pick 'n Save was the leading conventional supermarket banner. Mariano's, positioned as a premium urban grocery experience, provided Kroger with a format for urban and affluent suburban markets that differed from its traditional suburban supermarket model.

Impact

The Roundy's acquisition gave Kroger a foothold in Chicago, the third-largest U.S. Metropolitan market, through the Mariano's banner's approximately 30 locations. Pick 'n Save's dominant position in Wisconsin—particularly in the Milwaukee metropolitan area—added a market where Kroger had previously had no presence and where the competitive dynamics were favorable for a well-capitalized operator. The combination of the three banners created a Midwest cluster that complemented Kroger's existing Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Kentucky operations.

Outcome

The Mariano's banner has performed competitively in the highly contested Chicago grocery market, though Chicago's dense competitive environment—featuring strong regional operators, Jewel-Osco, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe's as well as aggressive expansion by Aldi and Lidl—has made the market challenging. Pick 'n Save has maintained its strong position in Wisconsin as a value-oriented conventional supermarket leader. The Roundy's acquisition overall has been accretive to Kroger's earnings and geographic diversification, though some underperforming Mariano's locations were subsequently closed or remodeled.

Harris Teeter Supermarkets

2014

$2.5B

Why

Kroger acquired Matthews, North Carolina-based Harris Teeter Supermarkets for approximately $2.5 billion in January 2014, adding 227 stores across the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states and a premium supermarket banner with a strong reputation for fresh food quality, store cleanliness, and customer service. Harris Teeter operated in markets including Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham, the Washington D.C. Metro area, Richmond, and coastal Carolina markets where Kroger had limited or no presence. The acquisition provided immediate scale in high-growth Sunbelt markets with attractive demographic profiles.

Impact

Harris Teeter significantly extended Kroger's geographic reach into some of the fastest-growing population markets in the United States, including the Research Triangle region of North Carolina, the Charlotte metro area, and the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington D.C. The premium banner positioning allowed Kroger to compete for upper-income suburban households that might not consider a standard Kroger-banner location, broadening the company's demographic coverage beyond its traditional middle-income core.

Outcome

Harris Teeter has remained a high-performing banner within Kroger's portfolio, consistently generating comparable-store sales growth at or above the company average and maintaining the premium quality positioning that made it attractive to the acquirer. The banner's strong fresh food departments and curated specialty selection have served as a learning laboratory for quality improvements that have been selectively applied across the broader Kroger store network.

Vitacost.com

2014

$280M

Why

Kroger's acquisition of Vitacost.com, an online natural health and organic food retailer, for approximately $280 million in 2014 represented an early strategic move to build digital commerce capabilities at a time when most traditional grocery retailers were still treating e-commerce as a peripheral experiment. Vitacost operated as a pure-play online retailer selling vitamins, supplements, natural foods, and health products through its website, with a customer base concentrated in the health-conscious consumer segment that Kroger was simultaneously trying to capture with its Simple Truth organic brand launch.

Impact

The Vitacost acquisition provided Kroger with a functioning e-commerce operation, an existing customer base of health-oriented online shoppers, and digital fulfillment experience that informed the company's subsequent investment in broader digital grocery capabilities. The health and wellness category alignment between Vitacost's assortment and Kroger's Simple Truth brand created cross-selling and brand development operational efficiencies in a segment where consumer spending was growing rapidly.

Outcome

Vitacost was eventually integrated more fully into Kroger's digital commerce infrastructure as the company built out its primary app and delivery platform. The brand was largely retired as a distinct consumer-facing identity as Kroger consolidated its digital experiences under the primary Kroger digital platform, but the operational knowledge and capabilities acquired through the Vitacost purchase contributed to the company's broader digital competency development.

Fred Meyer Stores

1999

$13.5B

Why

Kroger's acquisition of Fred Meyer Stores for approximately $13.5 billion in 1999 was the largest in the company's history at that time and represented a transformative geographic and format expansion. Fred Meyer operated approximately 800 stores across the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, Mountain West, and Mountain States, primarily in large-format multi-department locations selling groceries alongside clothing, electronics, hardware, and jewelry. The deal gave Kroger immediate scale in markets where it had limited or no presence and added a premium multi-department format capability that complemented its supermarket-focused portfolio.

Impact

The Fred Meyer acquisition substantially expanded Kroger's geographic footprint into the Pacific Northwest and Mountain West, regions that have subsequently developed into some of the company's most profitable market clusters. The multi-department format—particularly the Fred Meyer stores in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Alaska—established a retail model for markets where a single large-format location serving multiple product categories could achieve economics unachievable by supermarkets operating in the same footprint. The jewelry retail component, inherited from Fred Meyer's Fred Meyer Jewelers division, added a non-food revenue stream that continues to operate within the multi-department format.

Outcome

Fred Meyer remains one of Kroger's most recognizable and commercially successful banner brands, consistently generating strong comparable-store sales performance in its Pacific Northwest core markets. The multi-department format has proven resilient against the specific competitive threats that have pressured conventional supermarkets, as the breadth of the merchandise offering creates a more complete shopping destination that is harder for specialized competitors to replicate.

The Kroger Co.'s Growth & Acquisition Strategy

Kroger's growth strategy centers on fresh food, Our Brands, digital grocery, loyalty personalization, retail media, pharmacy services, and productivity programs that free cash for stores and shareholder returns. With the Albertsons deal behind it, management has to show that the same scale logic can be pursued through customer retention and operating discipline.

How The Kroger Co. Makes Money

Kroger makes most of its money from retail food and consumables sold through supermarkets and multi-department stores. Fuel centers, pharmacies, general merchandise, private-label manufacturing, digital delivery, and Kroger Precision Marketing add scale and margin diversity. The business is high-volume and low-margin, so procurement leverage, labor productivity, shrink control, and loyalty-driven repeat visits matter more than headline revenue growth.