Albertsons confirmed it is undergoing division restructuring in a Tuesday email to Grocery Dive.
The grocery company is combining its Intermountain and Denver divisions into a new division called the Mountain West Division, allowing the company to “operate in new and innovative ways as we serve our customers and communities,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
The company’s Intermountain division includes southern Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, northern Nevada, northern Utah and western Wyoming while its Denver division covers Colorado, eastern Wyoming, South Dakota and northwest New Mexico, per Albertsons’ website.
The spokesperson also said the company recently made “some divisional leadership updates,” but did not specify what those changes were.
John Colgrove, current head of the Intermountain Division, will leave the company this summer and Brad Street, leader of Albertsons’ Seattle operations, will step in to oversee the newly created Mountain West Division, BoiseDev reported. The outlet added that Albertsons is reorganizing itself into three regions — East, West and California.
“As we continue to evolve and enhance our retail operations, a core part of that effort is ensuring our organizational structure properly enables strong local operational excellence across the regions we serve and also leverages our size and scale,” the Albertsons spokesperson told Grocery Dive.
This reorganization follows closely behind the announcement of corporate Safeway layoffs in California and Arizona, which impact more than 380 workers. Albertsons told Grocery Dive earlier this year that the company cut jobs in its corporate and division support workforce in an effort to lower expenses. CEO Vivek Sankaran told investors last month that Albertsons is looking to cut $1.5 billion in spending over the next three years.
Albertsons isn’t alone in making large-scale changes to corporate operations.
Kroger confirmed in an email to Grocery Dive on Monday it has cut some roles and will restructure teams, without providing more details.
“As we continue delivering fresh, affordable food to our customers, we are focusing on key priority areas that support our go-to-market strategy. As part of this prioritization work, we announced team restructures and a small number of eliminated roles to improve efficiency,” Kroger said in a statement.
