Kroger and Lindsay Goldberg Announce Strategic Partnership to Form PearlRock Partners
15 May 2019 - 6:05AM
Business Wire
New platform will invest in and foster
growth for innovative consumer brands that customers will
love
The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR) and Lindsay Goldberg, a private
investment firm that focuses on partnering with families, founders
and management teams seeking to actively build their businesses,
today announced the formation of PearlRock Partners, a new platform
that will identify, invest in and help grow the next generation of
leading consumer product brands. PearlRock Partners will be one of
the largest data-driven investment vehicles focused on consumer
brands. The platform will be a part of Kroger’s alternative profit
streams portfolio.
This press release features multimedia. View
the full release here:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190514006049/en/
To help emerging consumer brands reach new customers and grow
their business, the new platform will leverage Kroger’s
merchandising capabilities and predictive analytics along with
Lindsay Goldberg’s deep consumer expertise and nearly 20-year track
record of investing in and supporting family-owned and founder-led
companies.
“We are excited to add PearlRock Partners to our portfolio of
high-growth alternative profit businesses that generate additional
value from our core grocery business. We are confident this
partnership with Lindsay Goldberg will help discover and cultivate
new brands that Kroger customers will love,” said Stuart Aitken,
Kroger’s senior vice president of alternative business and CEO of
84.51°. “We are transforming from grocer to growth company by
deploying our assets to serve even more customers and create
margin-rich alternative profit streams.”
Brian Kelley, a Partner at Lindsay Goldberg who previously
served as CEO of Keurig Green Mountain and President of Coca-Cola’s
North American operations, added: “We are thrilled to partner with
Kroger to help grow tomorrow’s most successful consumer brands
alongside the entrepreneurs who built them. Backed by a
state-of-the-art predictive data platform, real-world consumer
product expertise and unparalleled merchandising resources, these
next-gen brands will be poised for growth and offer Kroger’s broad
customer base greater choice, convenience and innovation.”
Chris Laitala, a Partner at Lindsay Goldberg, stated: “Our
partnership with Kroger creates an opportunity to invest in the
consumer products industry with unique insights and a competitive
edge. Consistent with our track record of making transformative
investments with exceptional industry partners, this strategic
relationship with Kroger will provide differentiated sourcing and
visibility into evolving consumer preferences and brand
performance.”
“We are excited about building a long-term partnership with
Kroger,” said Eric Fry, a Partner at Lindsay Goldberg.
PearlRock Partners ladders to Restock Kroger, Kroger’s
transformational plan to redefine the food and grocery customer
experience in America. Through Restock Kroger, the company is
leveraging its stores, logistics and data assets to create
incremental new profit streams, which, in turn, drive investments
to further redefine the customer experience. In this way, Kroger’s
new growth model will be a virtuous cycle. The new platform will
not only drive new alternate profit streams for Kroger, but will
also contribute to the small brand ecosystem, helping emerging
brands grow and thrive in Kroger’s stores.
For brands and other parties interested in learning more, please
email inquiries@pearlrockpartners.com.
About Kroger
At The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR), we are dedicated to our Purpose:
to Feed the Human Spirit™. We are nearly half a million
associates who serve nine million customers daily through a
seamless digital shopping experience and 2,800 retail food stores
under a variety of banner names, serving America through food
inspiration and uplift, and creating #ZeroHungerZeroWaste
communities by 2025. To learn more about us, visit
our newsroom and investor relations site.
About Lindsay Goldberg
Lindsay Goldberg is a private investment firm that focuses on
partnering with families, founders and management teams seeking to
actively build their businesses. Founded in 2001, Lindsay
Goldberg’s relationship-driven approach is centered upon a
collaborative investment model and supported by its global network
of affiliate partners. For more information about Lindsay Goldberg,
please visit www.lindsaygoldbergllc.com.
About 84.51°
84.51°, a Kroger company, knows customers, and we know how to
connect you. Using a sophisticated, proprietary suite of tools and
technology, we turn customer data into actionable knowledge. With
unique customer data and predictive analytics capabilities, we
deliver personalized marketing strategies and ensure the best
experience for customers of Kroger and more than 300
consumer-packaged-goods companies. We put the customer at the
center of everything we do, resulting in a more dynamic, informed
and personal approach to driving customer loyalty.
This press release contains forward-looking statements, as that
term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995, about the future performance of Kroger. These statements are
indicated by words such as “create,” “confident,” “excited,” “will”
and similar words. Various uncertainties and other factors could
cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in
the forward-looking statements. These include the specific risk
factors identified in “Risk Factors” and “Outlook” in Kroger’s
annual report on Form 10-K for our last fiscal year and any
subsequent filings, as well as the following: Our ability to
achieve sales, earnings, incremental FIFO operating profit, and
free cash flow goals may be affected by the ability to execute on
Restock Kroger and the success of new partnerships. Our ability to
use free cash flow to drive growth while also maintaining our
current investment grade debt rating and returning capital to
shareholders could be affected by unanticipated increases in net
total debt, our ability to generate free cash flow at the levels
anticipated, and our failure to generate expected earnings.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190514006049/en/
Kroger: Media, Kristal Howard, (513) 762-1304; Investors,
Rebekah Manis, (513) 762-4969Lindsay Goldberg: Jonathan
Gasthalter/Nathaniel Garnick, (212) 257-417084.51°: Lisa Dyson,
(513) 404-6302, Lisa@okeeffepr.com
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