Kroger Went Outside for its Next CEO, and Investors Approved
Kroger Went Outside for its Next CEO, and Investors Approved
Kroger just ended a nearly year-long CEO search by naming Greg Foran CEO, effective immediately, after running with an interim CEO since March 2025.
Shares popped on the announcement, up as much as ~8% intraday before fading.
That’s the market passing judgment: the board picked a leader whose track record
matches the work Kroger needs done next.
Grocery is brutally transparent. Margins are thin. Labor costs are sticky. Pricing shows up fast. And because the economics are tight, mistakes show up in results quickly.
Sometimes the existing team isn’t executing well enough in this environment. That’s why boards in mature industries increasingly hire C-suite talent from outside the company. The goal is consistent execution, follow-through, and day-to-day operating discipline that shows up store by store.
Foran’s background fits that. He’s run large, complex retail systems where progress is earned through repeatable routines, clean accountability, and steady improvement, not speeches.
The market move looked like relief that Kroger chose a CEO whose strengths align with the company’s key success factors, not excitement for change for its own sake.
Now the real test is whether execution improves fast enough to sustain confidence.
When a mature retailer hires an external CEO, what’s the first concrete sign you look for that performance is starting to improve?
