Grocery giant Kroger expands to Austin metro with delivery service

A massive grocery retailer is jumping into the Austin market soon with grocery delivery services.

The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) announced March 4 it will launch its e-commerce delivery service later this year in the Austin metro, which is expected to create up to 161 jobs.

Kroger’s arrival brings new competition to the market for H-E-B LP, which has mostly dominated the grocery delivery space since it bought Favor in 2018 to help it flesh out delivery service.

Kroger is also expanding to San Antonio and Birmingham, Alabama.

The Cincinnati, Ohio-based company is planning a 70,000-square-foot, last-mile spoke facility in Northeast Austin — pending lease negotiations — which will become operational later this year, according to the announcement. The future address was not available by publication time.

The future last-mile facility in Austin will be fueled by a fulfillment center in Dallas. The service is through a partnership between Kroger and Ocado, a leader in technology for grocery e-commerce.

Opportunity Austin, the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce’s economic development initiative, partnered with Kroger’s economic development team to facilitate the expansion.

“We welcome the opportunity that Kroger’s innovative and modern grocery delivery service will bring to residents of the Austin region,” Charisse Bodisch, senior vice president of economic development for the Chamber, said in a statement.

Last year, companies of different size and industry pledged to create 26,697 new jobs across Central Texas — up nearly 21% from the previous record of 22,114 jobs announced in 2020, according to data compiled by Opportunity Austin.

Courtesy of Austin Business Journal. See the full article here.