Kroger plans to grow with digital, private label brands and fresh food

Published: March 31, 2021 at 7:47 a.m. ET

By

Tonya Garcia

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Ahead of its investor event on Wednesday, Kroger Co. KR, -5.49% reiterated its full-year 2021 guidance for an identical sales decline of 3% to 5% and earnings per share of $2.75 to $2.95. The FactSet consensus is for an identical sales decline of 4% and EPS of $2.80. The grocery retailer outlined plans for shareholder return of 8% to 11% and net earnings growth of 3% to 5% through a number of strategies, including fresh food sales increases, accelerating digital, which the company says is now a growth engine, and wider competitive moats, such as continued innovation in its private label Our Brands. COVID-19 drove a surge in online grocery, with competitor Albertsons Cos. Inc. ACI, -3.44% announcing Tuesday that it has partnered with Google GOOG, +0.64% GOOGL, +0.78% on a number of digital initiatives. Kroger stock has gained 26.4% over the past year while the S&P 500 index SPX, +0.36% is up 53.2% for the period.

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Tonya Garcia

Tonya Garcia is a MarketWatch reporter covering retail and consumer-oriented companies. You can follow her on Twitter @tgarcianyc. She is based in New York. Tonya joined MarketWatch from Moguldom Media, where she was business editor for MadameNoire, a website targeting African-American women with a range of content from personal finance to economics, politics, education and lifestyle and entertainment. She also worked at Mediabistro, and previously handled media relations for MSLGroup’s consumer practice.