Kroger adds 1,500 jobs in Virginia in 2014

Kroger created about 1,500 jobs in Virginia in 2014, and now is the state’s 21st largest employer with more than 12,000 associates, the grocer said Thursday.

Most of the new jobs are in stores, ranging from full-time department heads to part-time courtesy clerks.
      
Kroger operates 62 stores in Hampton Roads, the Richmond Region and western Virginia. In addition, the company said it employs several hundred people in a distribution center in Salem, its regional office in Roanoke and Westover Dairy in Lynchburg.

In the mid-Atlantic region, which includes 120 stores in West Virginia, North Carolina and small portions of Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio in addition to Virginia, Kroger employs approximately 17,500 associates.

“Kroger is proud to be creating jobs in Virginia and contributing to the economic growth of the Old Dominion,” Allison McGee, a spokesperson for the Mid-Atlantic region, said in a statement. “New jobs have a significant impact on the communities we serve.”
  
The mid-Atlantic division is headquartered in Roanoke.  According to McGee, many of the company’s managers and executives started with entry-level jobs.  “We continue to have job openings for friendly, hard-working associates who are passionate about making a difference for our customers.”

Kroger, based out of Cincinnati, Ohio, operates 2,625 grocery retail stores in 34 states under nearly two dozen banners. Food stores represent the company’s primary business and account for about 94 percent of total company sales, according to Kroger’s website.

Altogether, Kroger – which has been opening new stores in Virginia and other states, said it added nearly 25,000 jobs last year.  Over the last seven years, Kroger has created more than 65,000 jobs.

This figure does not include increases due to the company’s mergers. Kroger and its subsidiaries currently employ nearly 400,000 associates.