Kroger Named Top Corporation for Women-Owned Businesses

For the sixth consecutive year, Kroger has been named one of America’s Top Corporations for Women’s Business Enterprises by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC).

The annual list honors corporations that have established a sustained commitment to the inclusion of women-owned businesses in their supply chains.

“Diversity is at the core of our people-first culture and an integral part of our business strategy at Kroger,” said Angel Colon, Kroger’s Senior Director of Diversity and Inclusion. “Women make up more than half of our workforce and 31 percent of our senior management, and we’re deeply committed to increasing women’s business enterprise representation across Kroger’s supply chain. We’re proud that this intentional approach to inclusion has once again earned us WBENC’s prestigious ‘Top Corporations’ recognition.” 

Kroger’s 2019 Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE) Highlights:

• Kroger invested an additional $163 million with women-owned businesses across its supply chain in 2019, increasing its annual WBE spending by 50 percent.
• Kroger established 234 new WBE supplier partnerships, a 57 percent increase from 2018.
• Kroger held a Supplier Inclusion Innovation Summit in May 2019, inviting more than 80 diverse suppliers to pitch their products and services while networking with Kroger’s key category managers and buys. Nearly half of summit attendees were WBE suppliers including Tempagenix, Kroger’s Top Innovation Award honoree.
• Kroger partnered with WBENC’s Student Entrepreneur Program to mentor Sinzuca Chocolates Founder Yolanda Martinez and other merging WBE vendors.
• Kroger achieved Billion Dollar Roundtable status for 12 consecutive years, reaching more than $1 billion in spending with certified minority and women-owned suppliers.
• Kroger ranked 13th on Omnikal’s 2019 Omni50 list, which recognizes America’s top 50 corporate and government buyers of products and services from inclusive and diverse suppliers.
• Kroger ranked fourth on The Wall Street Journal’s list of the top 20 most diverse Fortune 500 companies.

The Top Corporations for Women’s Business Enterprises list is the only national award program honoring corporations for establishing supplier diversity initiatives that proactively integrate women-owned businesses into their supply chains. The 75 companies named to the prestigious list will be recognized at the 2020 WBENC Summit & Salute, a gathering of more than 1,800 entrepreneurs and corporate business leaders taking place March 16-18 in Nashville, TN.