Kroger Q3 profit falls but in line with Street; revenue up 3.2%

Cincinnati – Kroger Co. reported a lower third-quarter profit that matched Wall Street's view. Net income fell to $299 million from $317 million a year earlier, partly on the costs from the pending acquisition of Harris Teeter.

Revenue grew 3.2% to $22.5 billion from $21.8 billion.



Without fuel, same-store sales grew 3.5%. With fuel they grew 2.5%.



"Our quarterly results show once again that Kroger is uniquely positioned to grow and win in the U.S. food retail industry," said David B. Dillon, Kroger's chairman and CEO. "Our Customer 1st Strategy resulted in strong sales and earnings growth, lowered costs and helped improve Kroger's connection with our customers in the third quarter. Every one of our more than 343,000 associates deserves recognition for their individual work to achieve an unprecedented 40 consecutive quarters of positive identical supermarket sales. I know our entire team is hard at work to achieve the 41st."