Kroger to hire 10,000 store employees
The Kroger Co. said Monday it plans to hire 10,000 permanent employees in its supermarket divisions.
The Cincinnati-based supermarket chain currently employs more than 440,000 workers nationwide including more than 19,000 in the Greater Cincinnati region. The Kroger family of companies includes stores such as Ralphs, Fred Meyer, Dillons, Smith's, King Soopers, Harris Teeter and Food 4 Less.
The new jobs include an estimated 315 new positions in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky.
"Kroger's growth trajectory continues to create opportunities for our people to advance their careers – and to do that in a fun, team environment with great benefits," said Tim Massa, Kroger's group vice president of human resources and labor relations, in a news release.
The company said its total active workforce grew by more than 12,000 associates in 2016. Over the last eight years, Kroger has created more than new 86,000 permanent jobs. These figures do not include jobs created as a result of capital investment, such as temporary construction jobs, nor do they include increases due to the company's mergers.
Acquisitions have added still more jobs: the late 2015 takeover of Milwaukee-based grocer Roundy's Inc. added 22,000 workers and the early 2014 acquisition of North Carolina's Harris Teeter added 25,000.
The hiring news comes as the company announced in December it wanted to cut costs by offering voluntary early retirement to nearly 2,000 workers. Officials said the move would target mostly office personnel and middle management. The early retirement offer did not include store and district associates, senior officers and supermarket division presidents.
Kroger has blamed food price deflation this year for weighing down its earnings. While deflation lowers grocery prices for shoppers, it makes it harder for supermarkets like Kroger to grow overall sales. Kroger reported a $391 million profit for the third quarter, an 8.6 percent drop from 2015.
Reporter Alexander Coolidge contributed.