Latest / Best of Business / Greg Foran: Former Air New Zealand CEO on taking over as head of US retailer Kroger

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Greg Foran: Former Air New Zealand CEO on taking over as head of US retailer Kroger · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from news Talk zed Be
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  Speaker 1: follow this and our Wide Ranger podcast now on iHeartRadio.
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  Speaker 2: Now, it's being reported that former in New Zealand boss
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  Speaker 2: Greg Foran is about to be appointed as the new
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  Speaker 2: boss of US grocery giant Kroger. Kroger is the second
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  Speaker 2: largest grocer in the world, with more than a thousand
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  Speaker 2: stores nationwide, and Gregor's with us right now.
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  Speaker 3: Greg, Hello, Hi there. How are you, Heller?
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  Speaker 2: I'm very well, thank you. Is it confirmed yet?
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  Speaker 3: It's getting very close. I'm at the airport about to
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  Speaker 3: get on a plane to get to New York and
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  Speaker 3: then go to Cincinnati. So I think you can assume
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  Speaker 3: that there's some truth behind it.
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  Speaker 2: Oh fantastic, Well, congratulations on this. This feels like I
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  Speaker 2: feel like this is something that you would be well
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  Speaker 2: into because you're into the retail, aren't you.
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  Speaker 1: Well.
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  Speaker 3: I am as well into airlines too, and enjoyed that.
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  Speaker 3: I loved being back in New Zealand, and I think
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  Speaker 3: are New Zealand is a real big business and so
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  Speaker 3: so I think as Kroger. So you know, I'm really excited.
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  Speaker 2: What's the challenge with Kroger? Is this a turnaround?
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  Speaker 1: Job for you.
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  Speaker 3: I think it's probably best to wait until I get
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  Speaker 3: there and do the work on it. But you know,
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  Speaker 3: it's a business does about one hundred and fifty billion
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  Speaker 3: a year. Just over four hundred thousand associates work there.
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  Speaker 3: It's got about three thousand stores, multiple brands, so it's
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  Speaker 3: going to be complex. It's also got thirty five manufacturing facilities,
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  Speaker 3: so I'll help my hands full, but I'm looking forward
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  Speaker 3: to great.
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  Speaker 2: Be honest with me about something like it struck me
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  Speaker 2: that you were a retail guy who got into the
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  Speaker 2: Air New Zealand job and may have come up against
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  Speaker 2: the thing that most it would see most Air New
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  Speaker 2: Zealand CEOs realized, which is that as a particularly complex job.
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  Speaker 2: Is that what you found?
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  Speaker 3: I think probably running any airline that's complex, I think
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  Speaker 3: my timing was impeccable. Heather to begin sort of day
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  Speaker 3: one with COVID, and then no sooner we got through COVID,
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  Speaker 3: we had a pretty long lockdown, and no sooner we
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  Speaker 3: got through that, we had a pretty quick startup, and
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  Speaker 3: no sooner had we got with that, we've been dealing
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  Speaker 3: with engine challenges. But you know, I think full credit
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  Speaker 3: to the entire team and I look at what they're
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  Speaker 3: doing now and hats off to them. They're dealing with
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  Speaker 3: macro issues, micro issues. They're managing that well. So I
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  Speaker 3: think my timing was some technical But can I tell
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  Speaker 3: you I am really pleased I came back and did
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  Speaker 3: the gig. Why because it's made me a better leader. Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: I've had to learn some new things. I've had to
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  Speaker 3: deal with some issues that I would never eir have
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  Speaker 3: ever had had to deal with when I was at
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  Speaker 3: Walmart or will with and that puts me in a
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  Speaker 3: much better position, I think, to do a better job
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  Speaker 3: at Kroger.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Well, what doesn't break you does make you stronger. Right now,
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  Speaker 2: now that you're leaving, right, would you be prepared to
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  Speaker 2: give me a little bit of an objective view of
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  Speaker 2: what you think is going on with our supermarket situation here,
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  Speaker 2: our retail situation and what we need to actually do
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  Speaker 2: and there is any hope of getting a third entrant.
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  Speaker 3: You know, it's an interesting question. I had not spent
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  Speaker 3: a lot of time studying it. What I will tell
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  Speaker 3: you was that the country was five million people, which is,
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  Speaker 3: you know, really smaller than with Sydney these days, it's
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  Speaker 3: pretty hard to think that a large player is going
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  Speaker 3: to come in and create a third supermarket that potentially,
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  Speaker 3: in order to work well, would need to get to
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  Speaker 3: about fifteen percent market share. So it's really to do
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  Speaker 3: with scale more than anything else. And that's just the
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  Speaker 3: reality of New Zealand.
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  Speaker 2: Do you think that I'm assuming that you're going to
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  Speaker 2: be relocating obviously to the States to do this job
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  Speaker 2: and take your family with you. Do you think that
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  Speaker 2: there is something that we should be considering as a
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  Speaker 2: nation to keep our brightest young people here and people
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  Speaker 2: like yourselves wanting to come back and raise kids here.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think every country needs. I think if you're,
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  Speaker 3: you know, in charge of Indie, you worry about it.
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  Speaker 3: If you're in charge of the UK, I've just spent
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  Speaker 3: some time in Europe, I know that country is over
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  Speaker 3: there worried about it. So you know something which makes
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  Speaker 3: the difference. It's a quality of your people, and you
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  Speaker 3: want to hold on to your best and brightest as
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  Speaker 3: long as you possibly can, appreciating that sometimes there are
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  Speaker 3: going to be opportunities over see that people are going
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  Speaker 3: to want to pursue.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, do you think that part of the problem here
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  Speaker 2: at the moment with the brain train. And I'm talking
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  Speaker 2: about the younger people rather than yourself, because Jesus is
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  Speaker 2: a job you definitely should go for. But do you
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  Speaker 2: think that part of the problem is the loss of
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  Speaker 2: hope by young people?
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  Speaker 3: Oh? Look, I'm not close enough to answer that. I've
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  Speaker 3: got too much younger children and so they're well ensconced
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  Speaker 3: in doing what they're doing, which is improving their education.
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  Speaker 3: You know, I think any country is looking to create
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  Speaker 3: a degree of swagger in what they do. And that
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  Speaker 3: doesn't necessarily mean that you have to be the biggest,
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  Speaker 3: but you do want to be able to say that
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  Speaker 3: you're the best at some things, and I think that's important.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a fair point. Now, do you want to
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  Speaker 2: tell me who you're flying or is that just does
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  Speaker 2: that just being a traitor?
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  Speaker 3: No, I'm absolutely I'm on in New Zealand heading to
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  Speaker 3: JFK and one side land there. I've been jumping on
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  Speaker 3: a plane and flying down to Cincinnati where it is
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  Speaker 3: a barney and I checked before minus twelve degree self,
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  Speaker 3: So there you go.
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  Speaker 2: Look after yourself.
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  Speaker 3: Greg.
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  Speaker 2: It's lovely to chat to you, and congratulations on the job.
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  Speaker 3: A thank you very much. You have a great time here.
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  Speaker 2: We'll talk so okay, mate, look after yourself. That's Greeg
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  Speaker 2: four and former in New Zealand CEO.
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