Latest news with #Cincinnati-based
Hindustan Times
4 hours ago
- Business
- Hindustan Times
Kroger closing 60 stores across US: What shoppers need to know
Grocery chain Kroger announced it will close 60 stores across the United States over the next 18 months, representing about 5% of its 1,239 Kroger-branded locations operating in 16 states. The Cincinnati-based company disclosed the decision in a recent regulatory filing. Kroger will close 60 stores across the United States over the next 18 months.(REUTERS) "In the first quarter, Kroger recognized an impairment charge of $100 million related to the planned closing of approximately 60 stores over the next 18 months. As a result of these store closures, Kroger expects a modest financial benefit," the company said. Kroger said employees at affected stores will be offered positions at other nearby locations. While the company did not release a full list of affected locations, WAFF reported that the Kroger store at 1707 W. University Drive in McKinney, Texas, will be among those shutting down. "Unfortunately, we have made the difficult decision to close our McKinney store located at 1707 W. University Dr.," Kroger said in a statement to WAFF. 'This closure is part of a larger company-wide decision to run more efficiently and ensure the long-term health of our business.' Also Read: Kroger under fire for 'Lazy' Juneteenth cakes Store Closures Follow Modest Sales Decline The announcement comes shortly after Kroger reported its first-quarter earnings, with sales falling slightly to $45.1 billion, compared to $45.3 billion during the same quarter last year. Despite the decline, Chairman and CEO Ron Sargent said the company made 'solid progress' in several key areas. 'Kroger delivered solid first quarter results, with strong sales led by pharmacy, eCommerce and fresh. We made good progress in streamlining our priorities, enhancing customer focus, and running great stores to improve the shopping experience,' Ron Sargent said in a statement. 'Our commitment to driving growth in our core business and moving with speed positions us well for the future. We are confident in our ability to build on our momentum, deliver value for customers, invest in associates and generate attractive returns for shareholders.'
Indianapolis Star
9 hours ago
- Business
- Indianapolis Star
Kroger has announced plans to close 60 stores by the end of 2026. Will Indiana stores close?
Kroger plans to close 60 stores by the end of 2026, the company announced Friday, June 20. It's not clear yet if those plans will include any Indiana stores. Here's what we know. The Cincinnati-based retailer didn't specify what locations in its 35-state footprint would be shuttered. The company operated 2,731 stores at the beginning of its fiscal year, indicating the cuts represent about 2% of all of its locations. While recording a $100 million impairment charge, the company said it expects "a modest financial benefit" from the closures. Kroger pledged "to reinvest" the savings from the closing "back into the customer experience," and said it will "offer roles in other stores to all associates currently employed at affected stores." Based in downtown Cincinnati, Kroger employs 409,000 workers nationwide, including roughly 20,000 in Greater Cincinnati. Kroger operates 76 stores in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, employing 14,500 associates.
CNBC
13 hours ago
- Business
- CNBC
Kroger's shares rise as grocer says shoppers seek lower prices, cook more at home
Shares of Kroger rose about 9% on Friday as the supermarket operator raised its full-year sales outlook and said it's drawing shoppers seeking lower-priced store brands and cheaper alternatives to dining out. The Cincinnati-based grocer said it now expects identical sales, excluding fuel, to increase by 2.25% and 3.25% year over year, higher than its previous expectations for an increase of between 2% and 3%. Identical sales is an industry-specific metric that takes out one-time factors, such as store openings, closures and renovations. Kroger include stores and delivery sales in regions that have been in operation for five full quarters in identical sales. So far this year, shares of Kroger are up nearly 16%, outpacing the approximately 1% gains of the S&P 500 during the same period. Here's how the company did for the fiscal first quarter compared with Wall Street's estimates, according to a survey of analysts by LSEG: In the three-month period that ended May 24, Kroger's net sales were $866 million, or $1.29 per share. Identical sales, excluding fuel, rose 3.2% compared to the year-ago period, with growth coming from pharmacy, e-commerce and fresh groceries. The company's e-commerce sales grew by 15% year over year. Kroger, which owns supermarket banners across the country, has gone through significant changes over the past year. A judge blocked its $25 million acquisition of competitor Albertsons in December. Longtime CEO Rodney McMullen resigned in March after a company investigation into his personal conduct. And the company's legal battle with Albertsons over the demise of the merger deal is ongoing. The company also recently hired a new CFO, David Kennerley, formerly the chief financial officer for PepsiCo Europe, after its former CFO Gary Millerchip left for Costco. On top of company-specific challenges, Kroger faces stiffer competition from Walmart and Costco — particularly as shoppers spend cautiously and watch prices closely because of tariff uncertainty. On an earnings call with analysts on Friday, interim CEO Ron Sargent said Kroger is trying to cater to value-minded shoppers by simplifying its promotions, lowering prices on more than 2,000 products so far this year and emphasizing its private brands that tend to cost less. "Many customers want more value, and as a result, they're buying more promotional products and more of our brand's products," he said. "They're also eating more meals at home." He said the company has seen a jump in shoppers buying larger pack sizes, using coupons more and buying fewer discretionary items such as snacks and adult beverages. Kroger's private labels, which tend to be cheaper than name-brand national brands, have been a growth driver as well. For the seventh consecutive quarter, Sargent said Kroger's own brands grew faster than national brands. Its top two brands were Kroger's more premium-focused brands: Simple Truth, its line of organic items, and Private Selection, which includes gourmet and artisan-inspired items like brioche dinner rolls and lobster mac and cheese. Sargent said Kroger will try to build on that momentum — and health trends it's seeing — by launching 80 new protein products to its Simple Truth line, including protein bars and shakes. As a grocer that sells many food items from the U.S., Sargent said Kroger isn't as impacted by higher tariffs on imports from across the globe as other companies. Yet in places where it does import goods, such as fruit and vegetables or flowers, he said it is "proactively looking for ways to avoid raising prices for our customers, and we consider price changes as a last resort." "Tariffs have not had a material impact on our business so far. And given what we know today, we do not expect them to going forward," he said. Kroger is also taking a hard look at its costs so it can modernize its business and get its e-commerce business closer to profitability, Kennerley said on the earnings call. The e-commerce business, a combination of curbside pickup and deliveries to customers' doors, is not yet profitable. The company said Friday that it will close about 60 stores over the next 18 months, which led to a $100 million impairment charge in the first quarter. Sargent said the company had paused its annual store review during the merger process and not all of its stores are "delivering the sustainable results we need," so now it's catching up with closing unprofitable stores. Still, he said, even as it's shuttering stores, Kroger plans to open new locations in higher-growth parts of the country and will accelerate those openings in 2026. Kroger continues to search for its next CEO. Sargent said the company's board is working with a search firm, but does not yet have an update.
Indianapolis Star
2 days ago
- Politics
- Indianapolis Star
Supreme Court upholds ban on gender-affirming care for minors. Indiana among states affected
WASHINGTON − An ideologically divided Supreme Court on June 18 upheld Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care for minors, a major setback for transgender Americans who have increasingly become targets of conservative states and the Trump administration. The court's six conservatives voted to uphold the ban and the three liberals dissented. The decision − one of the court's biggest this year − came about five years after the court ruled that transgender people, as well as gay and lesbian people, are protected by a landmark civil rights law barring sex discrimination in the workplace. But in this case, the court said that preventing minors from using puberty blockers and hormone therapy does not violate the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, which requires the government to treat similarly situated people the same. "Having concluded it does not, we leave questions regarding its policy to the people, their elected representatives, and the democratic process," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority. The Biden administration and the Tennessee families that challenged the law argued it discriminated against transgender people because a teenager whose sex assigned at birth is male may be given testosterone to treat delayed puberty. But a teenager assigned female at birth who wants testosterone to treat gender dysphoria may not have it. Tennessee countered that the treatments have different risks and benefits when used by transgender youth, who need to be protected from life-altering consequences. After the case was argued in December, the Justice Department under President Donald Trump told the court it was no longer challenging Tennessee's law. Trump made opposition to transgender rights a central theme of his campaign. The issue, a major flashpoint in the culture wars, gained prominence with startling speed, despite the tiny – though increasing – fraction of Americans who are transgender. Since 2022, the number of states taking steps to limit access to gender-affirming care for minors grew from four to about half. States have also taken steps to restrict the bathrooms transgender students can use, what sports teams they can join. and whether they can change the sex designation on their birth certificates. When families with transgender children challenged bans on gender-affirming care, district courts largely sided with them and blocked enforcement. But three appeals courts upheld the laws, including the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A federal court let Indiana's ban on gender-affirming care for minors take effect in February 2024. The law, signed in 2023 by Gov. Eric Holcomb, bans doctors from performing gender reassignment surgery or prescribing medication, like puberty blockers or hormone therapy, to those under 18 years old. Physicians who provide these procedures in Indiana could face discipline by the state's medical licensing board. Supreme Court's Indiana impact: What Supreme Court case could mean for Indiana's ban on gender-affirming care for minors Tennessee's law was the first to reach the Supreme Court. During the December oral arguments, several of the conservative justices voiced support for taking a similar approach to what the court did when it overturned Roe v. Wade, finding there's no constitutional barrier to the issue at hand and leaving it up to state and federal legislatures to decide. 'My understanding is the Constitution leaves that question to the people's representatives, rather than to nine people, none of whom is a doctor,' Chief Justice John Roberts said during December's debate. The court's liberal justices had argued that the court can't ignore constitutional protections, particularly for the vulnerable. 'That's a question for the court,' Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said. Gender-affirming care for minors is supported by every major medical organization, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychiatric Association. But the court's conservative justices focused more on the fact that some European countries have tightened restrictions on the treatments. England's National Health Service, for example, stopped prescribing the drugs outside of clinical trials after a review concluded more data is needed to help doctors and their patients make informed decisions.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Supreme Court sides with straight woman in Ohio 'reverse discrimination' case
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court agreed on June 5 that a worker faced a higher hurdle to sue her employer as a straight woman than if she'd been gay. The unanimous decision, which landed amid a national backlash against diversity, equity and inclusion programs, could trigger a wave of 'reverse discrimination' lawsuits. The justices rejected a lower court's ruling that Marlean Ames could not sue the Ohio Department of Youth Services because she'd failed to provide 'background circumstances' showing the department was 'that unusual employer who discriminates against the majority.' That's a test created in 1981 by a federal appeals court used by some, but not most, of the federal courts when assessing claims brought under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said in 1981 that while white people are covered by the Civil Rights Act, it defied common sense 'to suggest that the promotion of a black employee justifies an inference of prejudice against white co-workers in our present society.' But the law itself, which bans discrimination based on 'race, color, religion, sex or national origin,' doesn't set different thresholds for members of minority and majority groups. Ames' lawyers told the justices her suit would not have been dismissed at this stage of the litigation had she been gay and the employees who got the jobs she wanted were straight. During the court's discussion of the case in February, Ohio's solicitor general did not defend the 'exact language' the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals used when rejecting Ames' suit over insufficient 'background circumstances.' But T. Elliot Gaiser, the solicitor general, argued that Ames still failed to show enough evidence that her sexual orientation played any role in the hiring decisions she questioned. Ames twice lost jobs at the Ohio Department of Youth Services to other candidates she thought were less qualified, both of whom were gay. The department said she was passed over for a promotion because she lacked the necessary vision and leadership skills, not because she happened to be straight. Officials said she was then demoted from her administrator position because she wouldn't bring a proactive approach to the department's increased emphasis on combatting sexual violence in the juvenile corrections system. The Supreme Court's decision in Amex v. Ohio Department of Youth Services doesn't settle Ames' discrimination claim but only revives it for additional court proceedings. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Supreme Court sides with straight woman claiming job discrimination in Ohio
