CINCINNATI and CHICAGO – July 27 2016 ‒ IRI®, a global leader in innovative solutions and services for consumer, retail, media and over-the-counter health care companies, announced today that it has reached a long-term agreement with The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) to further enhance Kroger’s Customer 1st strategy and strengthen the industry-leading solutions and services offered by IRI and Kroger.
IRI will be Kroger’s preferred partner for market measurement services, which provide Kroger and its supplier partners a common view of their business performance compared to the rest of the market. The industry-leading IRI Liquid Data™ technology platform and extensive product movement and causal data – which includes weather, gas and macroeconomic factors – will help both Kroger and its suppliers collaborate more easily and make better decisions to benefit customers.
“IRI and Kroger are at the forefront of the shifting landscape by providing better market measurement data and industry-leading technology to create highly personalized consumer marketing to drive growth,” said Andrew Appel, president and chief executive officer, IRI.
“In everything we do and every decision we make, we put our customers first. Our relationship with IRI is another step in this direction,” said Mike Donnelly, Kroger’s executive vice president of merchandising. “We believe IRI has the best tools and technology to allow both Kroger and our suppliers to access better market insights, helping us create even better experiences for every customer.”
About the IRI Partner Ecosystem
IRI fundamentally believes that delivering differentiated growth for clients driven by truly personalized marketing activation requires deep, highly integrated partnering with a variety of best-of-breed companies. As such, IRI works closely with a broad range of industry leaders to create innovative joint solutions, services and access to capabilities to help its clients more effectively compete in their various markets and exceed their growth objectives. IRI is committed to its partnership philosophy and continues to actively enhance its ecosystem of partners through alliances, joint ventures, acquisitions and affiliations. The IRI Partner Ecosystem includes such companies as Adobe, The Boston Consulting Group, comScore, Experian, GfK, Gigwalk, Ipsos, Kantar, MasterCard Advisors, MaxPoint, Millward Brown Digital, Mu Sigma, Oracle, SPINS, Univision and others.
IRI is a leading provider of big data, predictive analytics and forward-looking insights that help CPG, OTC health care organizations, retailers, financial services and media companies grow their businesses. With the largest repository of purchase, media, social, causal and loyalty data, all integrated on an on-demand, cloud-based technology platform, IRI is empowering the personalization revolution, helping to guide its more than 5,000 clients around the world in their quests to remain relentlessly relevant, capture market share, connect with consumers and deliver market-leading growth. A confluence of major external events – a revolution in consumer buying, big data coming into its own, advanced analytics and automated consumer activation – is leading to a seismic shift in drivers of success in all industries. IRI enables manufacturers and retailers to take advantage of today’s advanced technology to create new levels of personalization that lead to accelerated, sustained growth. More information is available at http://www.iriworldwide.com/
About The Kroger Co.
Every day, the Kroger Family of Companies makes a difference in the lives of 8.5 million customers and 431,000 associates who shop or serve in 2,778 retail food stores under a variety of local banner names in 35 states and the District of Columbia. Kroger and its subsidiaries operate an expanding ClickList offering – a personalized, order online, pick up at the store service – in addition to 2,230 pharmacies, 785 convenience stores, 323 fine jewelry stores, 1,400 supermarket fuel centers and 38 food production plants in the United States. Kroger is recognized as one of America’s most generous companies for its support of more than 100 Feeding America food bank partners, breast cancer research and awareness, military service members and their families, and more than 145,000 community organizations, including schools. A leader in supplier diversity, Kroger is a proud member of the Billion Dollar Roundtable.
IRI Contacts:
John McIndoe
(312) 474-3862
Shelley Hughes
(312) 474-3675
Kroger Contacts:
Investors: Kate Ward
Kroger
(513) 762-4969