Kroger Co (NYSE:KR) is offering a voluntary buyout for 2,000 of its employees.
The Kroger Co buyout has the company offering 2,000 of its non-store employees an early retirement offer. The goal is to reduce the company’s cost without affecting KR’s outward appearance to customers.
Kroger Co said that the the voluntary buyouts are for its administrative associates. These associates must be of a certain age and meet other requirements as of Dec. 1, 2016 to be eligible for the buyout. The offer is not available for “store and district associates, senior officers, and supermarket division presidents.”
Kroger Co is leaving the voluntary buyout offer on the table until early March. The savings will be based on how many of the company’s employees chose to take the buyout. The results of the offer will be reflected during the company’s first quarter of 2017. KR’s previous estimates for the period don’t take into account for the buyout offer.
“We believe a generous Voluntary Retirement Offering is in line with our company values and recognizes the long careers many of our associates have had with Kroger,” Rodney McMullen, Chairman and CEO of Kroger Co, said in a statement. “Kroger is committed to our operating model of lowering costs to invest in the areas that matter most to our customers.”
Kroger Co currently employs 431,000 employees in the United States. The company has seen sales growth slow recently. It’s non-fuel comparable-store sales for the third quarter of the year was 0.1%. This is its lowest growth in sales for a quarter in the last 13 years, reports Supermarket News.
