Kroger Interested in Acquisitions, if Price Is Right

NEW YORK -- Kroger Co., Cincinnati, is in the market for acquisitions, possibly even a major acquisition along the lines of its 1999 purchase of Fred Meyer, Inc. -- but only if the price is right, Mike Schlotman, senior vice president and chief financial officer, said in a presentation here yesterday at the Bank of America 2007 Consumer Conference. Asked about making another Fred Meyer-type acquisition, Schlotman said, "We wouldn't be opposed to an acquisition of size, though we aren't prowling for one. What's more significant for us is fill-in acquisitions. We just try to be very prudent with our shareholders' money on what we are willing to pay for assets in our existing markets." He cited one example in which Kroger lost a bid for a group of stores to another retailer over price, "but we are in the process of acquiring some of the stores we really wanted from that company, because the company that bought them overpaid" and ran into financial problems -- an apparent reference to Buehler Foods, Jasper, Ind., which acquired a group of Winn-Dixie stores in Kentucky in 2005 and ended up liquidating them following a corporate Chapter 11. -- Elliot Zwiebach