Well, for those of you who don’t know, Kroger is actually an American retail company that has thousands of multi-department stores and supermarkets across the country. Yup, they are that big. But the thing with this particular retail company is that they’re pretty old. Kroger was established way back in 1883, can you even believe that? But back in the day, it was just a small tea company. And yeah, now we get it, that must have got you thinking about how this company got this huge over the years, right? Well, the story behind that is a pretty interesting one, and that is what we are onto today. Here we are going to cover a little bit of history about Kroger, what their total net worth is at present, and who’s actually in charge of this huge company right now. So yeah, if you are here just for that, you may wanna stick a little longer with us. Here we go.
| Kroger Origin Country | United States |
| Established Year | 1883 |
| Headquarters | Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. |
| Kroger CEO | Rodney McMullen |
| Kroger Net Worth | $31.96 billion (as of October 2023) |
| Industry | Retail |
The Kroger Company History
See, back in 1883, in the city of Cincinnati, two friends named Barney Kroger and B.A. Branagan started a small tea company. They called it the “Great Western Tea Company” at first. Barney, who once sold coffee and tea, soon took over the whole business. And, just in two years, imagine this, he had four grocery shops! By 1902, wow, they had 40 shops! And they changed their name to the “Kroger Grocery and Baking Co”. Barney had a cool idea back then. He thought, “Why not make our own bread?” So, in 1901, Kroger was the first grocery shop to have its own bakery. Smart, right? It saved them money too. Years went by, and in the 1980s, Kroger stores started selling more than just food. They added things like medicines, makeup, and other health stuff. Today, you can find so many things at Kroger like fresh vegetables, tasty ready meals, and more!
Kroger Financials
Did you know that Kroger has nearly 2,800 stores spread out over 35 states? That’s massive, right? And quite recently, they’re doing really well. So, how well exactly? See, in 2022, Kroger shared some big numbers. They made a whopping $137.888 billion. But, on top of that, they had an income, just from their operations, of $3.477 billion. And when we talk about their net income, it was $1.655 billion. Let’s not forget their assets though. They had assets valued at $49.086 billion and equity worth $9.452 billion. This company was able to reach this point only because of some really smart brands working behind the scenes for Kroger. That’s how they got here. And when the world went online during the pandemic, they jumped right in. They started selling things like Home Chef meal kits, and did you know that they sold more than $1 billion of them in just a year? Yep, only meal kits.