Dive Brief:

• Long-time PepsiCo alum David Kennerley will serve as the next CFO for grocery chain Kroger, succeeding interim finance chief Todd Foley, the company said in a Wednesday press release.  
• Kennerley will join the company March 10 as a senior vice president, while Foley, an 18-year veteran of the Cincinnati, Ohio-based company, will continue to serve as interim CFO until the end of the grocery chain’s fiscal 2024 reporting cycle, the company said.
• The CFO swap was announced approximately two months after an Oregon District Court judge blocked a planned $25 billion merger between Kroger and fellow grocery chain Albertsons, with the judge ruling in December that Federal Trade Commission concerns that the merger would harm consumers were valid.

Dive Insight:

Foley will continue to serve as a member of the grocery chain’s senior leadership team to support an easy transition until the end of the company’s first quarter, Kroger said Wednesday.

Kennerley, who joined PepsiCo in 2001, most recently served as CFO, Europe for the beverage company, taking on that role in March 2020, according to his LinkedIn profile. During his over two-decade span at the company, he held a variety of executive and financial positions, including serving as its SVP of FP&A and commercial, SVP of commercial finance, and SVP finance, North American beverages.

The Pepsi alum will assume the top financial seat at the grocer as it looks to change course following its failed merger, which has led to organizational restructurings — including layoffs — at both Kroger and Albertsons in the wake of the termination of the deal.

The deal, which would have been the largest supermarket merger in U.S. history, was challenged by the FTC and nine state attorneys general last February, with the commission arguing it would raise prices for consumers as well as negatively affect the ability of workers in the industry to secure higher wages and benefits.

The Oregon district ruling granted the FTC’s request for a preliminary injunction against the deal in what the FTC’s Bureau of Competition Director Henry Liu called a “major victory for the American people.” Following the ruling, both Albertsons and Kroger announced they had terminated the agreement in company filings.  

The failed merger left both chains scrambling to re-adjust their strategies, with the grocery companies announcing restructurings of their teams and operations, including layoffs, according to a report by CFO Dive sister publication Grocery Dive. Albertsons reduced both its corporate and division staff earlier this year, coming as the grocer looks to cut $1.5 billion in spending, according to Grocery Dive. The company is also combining two of its divisions as part of an operational restructuring, and has made several leadership changes.

Kroger, meanwhile, has also cut several jobs as part of a planned restructuring also aimed at bolstering key “priority areas” at the company. “As part of this prioritization work, we announced team restructures and a small number of eliminated roles to improve efficiency,” the company said in a statement shared with Grocery Dive and CFO Dive.