The Supply Side: Former Walmart U.S. boss hired as Kroger CEO

Greg Foran is often seen as a fixer. When he took over as CEO for Walmart U.S. in 2014, he was tasked with cleaning up stores, reversing the downward trajectory of same-store sales, and overseeing the retail giant’s online grocery growth and expansion.

He did all those things during his five-year run at Walmart. Same-store sales improved for 20 consecutive quarters. He revamped Walmart’s grocery business, focusing on fresh foods and cutting waste. He championed growth in private brands, higher wages, more employee training, operational excellence and store-level execution.

After resigning from Walmart in November 2019, Foran returned home to New Zealand as the CEO of New Zealand Airlines, a position he held from early 2020 to October 2025. He is credited with leading the airline through a turbulent time, which included the global pandemic, supply chain disruptions for parts, and engine maintenance challenges. When he resigned in October 2025, Foran said the airline was set up to continue growth and innovation, and it was time for him to take on a new challenge.

That challenge is a return to the United States to lead Cincinnati-based Kroger.

Foran brings more than 40 years of experience leading large consumer businesses through periods of transformation, which is just what Kroger needs, according to Brittain Ladd, a supply chain and retail consultant. Kroger will be a smaller operation for Foran. Kroger had $147.12 billion in revenue in its recent fiscal year, with the Walmart U.S. segment posting $462.41 billion.

Ladd said Kroger is facing intense competition from Walmart, Amazon, Aldi and Publix. He said Foran will have his hands full turning the business around. Ladd said Walmart will be watching Foran’s actions.

“The biggest challenge for Kroger is price,” Ladd said. “On average, prices are 20% higher at Kroger than at Walmart. The gap should be no more than 3% to 8%. To close the gap, Kroger will have to massively lower prices across the majority of its best-selling products. This will significantly reduce Kroger’s earnings and attract few new customers. To take market share from Walmart, Kroger has to enter into a price war, and they have a lot lower to go before Walmart has to move. The danger to Kroger is that Amazon, Aldi and Publix will also lower their prices. Kroger will have no choice but to keep prices low to win new customers.”

Ladd said Walmart’s new management team has limited grocery experience and that could make the retail giant vulnerable to market share losses, particularly if store experience wanes or price gaps narrow. He said Walmart is behind schedule with its rollout of micro-fulfillment centers and automated systems with Symbotic. He said this allows Amazon and Kroger to pull ahead of Walmart with systems that enhance the speed of order picking and efficiency for the online grocery business.

“Greg Foran will also likely want to assemble his own leadership team, and it will be interesting to see if he taps other former Walmart execs to join him,” Ladd said.

Judith McKenna worked with Foran in overhauling Walmart’s U.S. business between 2015 and 2018 before she was asked to lead Walmart’s international business. She exited Walmart in January 2024 and recently surpassed the two-year non-compete clause in her Walmart executive contract.

Ladd said McKenna, 59, would be a strong hire for Foran. Kath McLay, who recently resigned her post as CEO of Walmart International, also worked with Foran during his time at Walmart and at Woolworths Ltd. in Australia before that. However, McLay would still be held to the non-compete clause for two years.

Scott Benedict, a retail consultant and former Walmart executive, said Foran is a strategic hire for Kroger, and McKenna would also be a win.

“Greg is a perfect hire and just what Kroger needs,” he said. “I understand now why it took a while, as the board was thoughtful and wanted to get it right. They also went outside for the hire, something they traditionally have not done. He will want to assemble a team, and we will have to see if we recognize any of the names. It will be interesting to watch.”

Benedict said that while Foran had plenty to fix when he took over the Walmart U.S. business in 2014, Kroger’s challenges could be more complex because of the many store banners they operate.

“Many of these banners came from acquisitions over the years, and they exist to serve different populations like Mariano’s in Chicago or King Soopers throughout the Rocky Mountain region, or Harris Teeter across the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern U.S. states,” Benedict said. “These banners are also different size formats raising the complexity for management. All they have in common is that they sell consumables.”

He said Kroger has an impressive retail media platform that could be grown given all the real estate and the various formats. He said retail media can drive revenue for the company to allow for the investments they are going to need in people and lower prices to become competitive with Walmart and other discounters.

He doubts that Walmart’s new CEO John Furner will lose much sleep over Kroger in the near term. Benedict said much of Kroger’s workforce is also unionized, and the retailer has had a hard time with worker turnover, which needs to be addressed.

Benedict also said the world has changed in the past five years since Foran worked in retail. Artificial intelligence is playing a bigger role, and fast delivery options are table stakes for grocery and most everything else.

Also, Walmart’s e-commerce business has become profitable, which was a problem for Foran when his profitable stores had cash flow gobbled up by Walmart’s e-commerce experiments under Mark Lore, who ran Walmart’s e-commerce business from 2016 to 2021.

Editor’s note: The Supply Side section of Talk Business & Politics focuses on the companies, organizations, issues and individuals engaged in providing products and services to retailers. The Supply Side is managed by Talk Business & Politics.