Kroger announced plans to acquire Albertsons Companies Friday in a $24.6 billion deal that could reshape the grocery market across the country, where the two chains are among the biggest grocers.
The deal is expected to close in early 2024 and, while many of the details are unknown, the two firms are touting nearly $1 billion in expected cost savings by combining. Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen said half of that could go toward lower prices for consumers.
Here are a few of the key numbers behind the merger:
4,996
Together, Kroger and Albertsons have 4,996 stores.
Kroger and Albertsons were already the two largest supermarket chains in the country, not including warehouse clubs such as Costco, variety retailers such as Walmart and Target or Amazon, according to Supermarket News.
Kroger itself has nearly 2,700 stores, operating under brands such as Kroger, Ralphs, Fred Meyer, Fry’s, Food 4 Less and King Sooper. The company has stores across the country, but is prolific in the Midwest, along the Atlantic seaboard and in the South outside of Florida.
Albertsons is a western chain that has 2,273 stores under the names Albertsons, Safeway, Tom Thumb, Market Street, Jewel Osco, Randalls and Lucky. Albertsons is based in Boise, Idaho.
The companies said they have 85 million customers combined signed up for their loyalty programs.
710,000
The two companies will have nearly three-quarters of a million employees and Kroger is the largest unionized supermarket chain in the country. Kroger CEO Randy McMullen mentioned the company’s unionized workforce as an advantage.
“As part of this, we will secure union jobs and we’ll continue to work with local unions across America that serve our communities,” McMullen said. “We are confident that with Albertsons, we will continue building a best-in-class associate experience and remain an employer of choice.”
Kroger said it expects to “invest $1 billion to continue raising associate wages and comprehensive benefits after close.”
195
Combined Albertsons and Kroger have 195 stores in North Texas, including 95 by Kroger, 60 by Tom Thumb, 31 with Albertsons and nine for Market Street.
If put together, that would give it the largest market share of any grocery chain in the area with 28%, slightly bigger than Walmart’s 27.6% market share, according to Chain Drug Review.
Target controls about 8.3% of the North Texas market and Sam’s Club, owned by Walmart, has 7.24%. Costco has about 8.9% of the local grocery market.
Those percentages were how the grocery landscape looked before popular Texas grocer H-E-B entered the market with its first store in Frisco and more openings planned this year and next year.
34,000
Albertsons and Kroger have a combined portfolio of 34,000 private-label products, including lines of natural and organic items. They make a lot of those items, too, at 52 manufacturing plants.
Kroger has its own name brand, along with Private Selection, Simple Truth for organic and natural foods and even a cheese label called Murray’s.
Albertson’s has brought many of its private label brands from Safeway, which it bought in 2015. Those include brands such as Signature Select and Lucerne Dairy Farms.
100 to 375
That’s how many stores Albertsons and Kroger may have to give up to make a merger work and satisfy antitrust regulators. The company has plans to spin off those stores into a separate company.
Areas such as Colorado and Washington could see the majority of stores being spun off. In Washington, Kroger has stores such as Fred Meyer and QFC, while Albertsons has its own Albertsons stores and Safeway. One analyst pointed out that the company could have a market share of more than 40% in those two states.
But there are several stores in Dallas-Fort Worth that are close to one another, making them targets for a potential spin-off.
2024
Kroger executives said the deal could be done in early 2024, giving it time to negotiate with antitrust regulators at the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice.
The Biden Administration has already promised more antitrust enforcement in industries such as airlines, technology and agriculture, but the merger of two of the nation’s largest supermarkets could add grocery chains to that list.
It will take time to negotiate the details of a deal, present it to shareholders, win the approval of investors and negotiate with regulators. After the 2015 merger between Safeway and Albertsons, the companies had to divest stores, including 12 locations in Dallas-Fort Worth, many of which never came back.
