The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) is an American retail supermarket chain, founded by Barney Kroger in 1883 in Cincinnati, Ohio. It reported over US$60 billion in sales during its most recent fiscal year and is the top grocery retailer in the country, and third place general retailer in the country, with Wal-Mart and Home Depot filling slots one and two, respectively. Anderson Township, Hamilton County, Ohio, houses the world's largest Kroger store.

It has its headquarters in Cincinnati, but it spans many states with store formats that include supermarkets, hypermarkets, department stores, convenience stores and mall jewelry stores. Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia are among those with Kroger stores carrying the Kroger name.

Manufacturing

As well as stocking a variety of national brand products, The Kroger Co. also employs one of the largest networks of private label manufacturing in the country. Forty-two plants (either wholly owned or used with operating agreements) in seventeen states create about half of Kroger’s nearly eight thousand private label products. A three-tiered marketing strategy divides the brand names for shoppers’ simplicity and understanding.

For Maximum Value

For Maximum Value (or more simply FMV) is Kroger’s value brand. Originally Fred Meyer Value, the company expanded the label to all Kroger-family stores following the acquisition of its namesake company, Fred Meyer, in 1999. FMV offers staple products such as sugar, flour, bread, and canned goods at the lowest price for that particular product in the store. Though some FMV products (such as their cheese) use a lower-quality manufacturing process, other products appear to be indistinguishable from their banner brand equivalent (FMV sugar and Kroger sugar, for example) other than the price.

FMV products are usually placed in the least-desirable positions on the shelf, and are rarely advertised in the store.

Banner Brands

Banner Brands, those that bear the name of Kroger or its subsidiaries (i.e. Ralphs, King Soopers, etc.) or make reference to them (i.e. Big K), are, according to the company, products which offer equal or greater quality when compared to their national brand counterparts. Kroger offers these goods with a “Try it, Like it, or Get the National Brand Free” guarantee. Many of Kroger’s health and beauty goods, one of the companies fastest growing private label categories, are manufactured by third-party providers; these products include goods like ibuprofen and contact lens solution.

Private Selection

Products marked Private Selection are offered to compare with gourmet brands or regional brands that may be considered more upscale.

Other private label brands

As well as the major grocery brands, Kroger’s manufacturing creates a variety of general merchandise brands. These are featured especially in Fred Meyer stores, where more than half the goods sold are non-food, or in the smaller Fred Meyer-based Marketplace stores. The following brands might be found in various Kroger-owned stores:

• MotoTech, automotive supplies
• Splash Sport, Splash Spa, and Bath & Body Therapies, bath and body supplies
• Everyday Living, kitchen gadgets
• HD Designs, upscale home goods
• Office Works, stationary and office supplies
• Naturally Preferred, organic and natural foods

Kroger Marketplace

Kroger Marketplace is a relatively new style of store for Kroger. The brand started in 2004 in the Columbus, Ohio, area, which lost the Big Bear and Big Bear Plus chains in Penn Traffic's Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Similar to rival chains Meijer and Super Kmart, and modeled after Kroger-owned Fred Meyer, these stores contain multiple departments. In addition to the grocery department, they contain a Fred Meyer Jewelers, Donato's Pizza, and an in-store bank, as well as sections for toys, appliances, and home furnishings, something that Big Bear once had in their stores in the Columbus area. As of 2006, Kroger operated only five Kroger Marketplace stores, all in Ohio. Kroger is currently constructing two more stores in Cincinnati and one in Gahanna, Ohio.