Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR) turned in respectable numbers for the first quarter of fiscal 2026 – the first of CEO Greg Foran’s tenure. However, due to a .83% miss on earnings per share (EPS), investors and traders punished KR shares. The stock was more than 8.3% lower by midday Thursday.
It’d be foolhardy to view these earnings – and the stock’s subsequent performance – as some kind of referendum on Foran’s leadership. Instead, I think it’s more useful to use them as a window into his executive philosophy.
After all, Greg Foran has only been in Kroger’s corner office for a few months, but the company’s first-quarter results offer some interesting clues about the direction he intends to take the business.
The headline numbers weren’t bad at all. Sales topped expectations, digital profitability improved, and management reaffirmed its full-year outlook. Yet investors focused on a relatively narrow set of metrics, like EPS, to sell the stock. The financial media published items on Kroger’s shrinking margins, rising costs, and increasingly cautious consumers – though, as we all know, these stiff headwinds blow across the entire industry, not just at Kroger.
The market’s reaction reflects a reality that Foran himself appears unwilling to ignore: Kroger’s biggest challenge isn’t driving sales – clearly, that’s working. The trick is to generate profitable sales.
That focus is consistent with the priorities Foran outlined shortly after becoming CEO. Rather than promising a dramatic strategic overhaul, the former Walmart U.S. honcho has emphasized operational execution, sharper pricing, stronger fresh departments, e-commerce profitability, and alternative profit streams (like retail media).
In other words, he seems less interested in reinventing Kroger than in making it run better.
The first quarter more or less reflected that philosophy.
Transcripts show that, during the earnings discussion, Foran repeatedly returned to the relationship between costs and sales, describing the current trajectory as “unsustainable.” While many retail CEOs might have highlighted the sales beat, Foran instead steered attention toward expense control, productivity, and efficiency.
That approach echoes the reputation he developed at Walmart, where he was credited with improving store standards, operational discipline, and customer experience while on the road to the company’s digital transformation.
I think Foran’s comments about consumer behavior were equally revealing. Rather than celebrating traffic gains, Foran noted that shoppers are increasingly making promotional trips instead of full-basket trips. The observation suggests a CEO that understands the economics of what customers are buying when they come through his doors.
Interestingly, and I think most notably, Foran doesn’t appear to view e-commerce as some kind of growth-at-any-cost proposition. Kroger has continued improving digital profitability; they’ve closed underperforming fulfillment assets and increasingly emphasized a more disciplined omnichannel model.
That represents a significant shift from the industry’s earlier frantic race to maximize online volume regardless of margins.
Foran’s Kroger looks for all the world like a company eschewing “transformational” initiatives and returning to retail fundamentals: price, the fresh category, execution, productivity, and customer experience.
Admittedly, fundamentals are not all that exciting for today’s risk-on, tech- and AI-crazed investors. But they ought to be exciting for grocery retailers. After the wreck of the Albertson’s merger and a period of leadership uncertainty, Greg Foran’s Kroger looks to be placing a big bet on operational excellence. It’ll be one of the most significant retail stories of 2026, and we ought to pay close attention.
