Exhibit 99.1

Kroger Reports Third Quarter 2020 Results and

Raises Full-Year 2020 Guidance

Third Quarter Highlights

CINCINNATI, December 3, 2020 -- The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) today reported its third quarter 2020 results, provided a Restock Kroger progress update on the three-year transformation plan, and an update to its COVID-19 response.

Comments from Chairman and CEO Rodney McMullen

“Our Kroger family of associates have been nothing short of incredible during the pandemic and they continue to inspire me every day. I am proud of our dedicated associates who continued to diligently execute our Restock Kroger transformation while serving our customers when they need us most.

We delivered strong results in the third quarter. Customers are at the center of everything we do and sales remain elevated as we continue to enhance our competitive moats – Fresh, Our Brands, Data & Personalization and Seamless. We are executing against our strategy even during the pandemic and continue to grow market share.

The strong underlying momentum in our core supermarket business and acceleration in the growth of our alternative profit business demonstrates we are successfully transforming our business model to deliver consistently strong and attractive total shareholder return in 2020 and beyond.”

Financial Results

*without fuel and adjustment items, if applicable

Total company sales were $29.7 billion in the third quarter, compared to $28.0 billion for the same period last year. Excluding fuel and dispositions, sales grew 11.3%.

Gross margin was 23.0% of sales for the third quarter. The FIFO gross margin rate, excluding fuel, decreased 2 basis points compared to the same period last year. This decrease was primarily driven by price investments and mix changes, offset by sourcing efficiencies, sales leverage and growth in alternative profit streams.

The LIFO charge was $23 million for both the third quarters of 2020 and 2019.

The Operating, General & Administrative rate decreased 30 basis points, excluding fuel and adjustment items, due to sales leverage and execution of Restock Kroger initiatives, partially offset by continued COVID-19 related investments to protect the health and safety of associates, customers and communities and increased incentive costs.

Rent and depreciation, excluding fuel, decreased 27 basis points due to sales leverage.

Capital Allocation Strategy

Kroger's capital allocation strategy is to use its adjusted free cash flow to invest in the business and drive profitable growth while also maintaining its current investment grade debt rating and returning capital to shareholders. The company actively balances the use of its adjusted free cash flow to achieve these goals.

Kroger's net total debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio is 1.74, compared to 2.50 a year ago (Table 5). The company's net total debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio target range is 2.30 to 2.50. Kroger held temporary cash investments of approximately $1.8 billion as of the end of the quarter, reflecting improved operating performance and significant improvement in working capital.

During the quarter, Kroger repurchased $304 million of shares under its $1 billion board authorization announced on September 11, 2020. Year-to-date, Kroger has repurchased $989 million of shares.

Earlier this year, Kroger increased the dividend by 13 percent, marking the 14^th consecutive year of dividend increases.

Guidance Update

Comments from CFO Gary Millerchip

“As a result of our continued strong performance, market share growth and the expectation of sustained trends in food at home consumption for the remainder of our fiscal year, we are raising our full year 2020 guidance. For the full year 2020, we expect total identical sales without fuel to be around 14% and adjusted EPS growth of 50% to 53%.

Our guidance contemplates continued investments in associates and customers plus ongoing COVID-19 related costs, balanced with continued execution of cost savings initiatives and growth in alternative profit businesses.

Looking toward 2021, we believe that our performance will be stronger than we would have expected prior to the pandemic when viewed as a two-year stacked result for identical sales without fuel growth and as a compounded growth rate over 2020 and 2021 for adjusted earnings per share growth.”

Full Year 2020 Guidance

* Without adjusted items, if applicable; Identical sales is without fuel; Operating profit represents FIFO Operating Profit. Kroger is unable to provide a full reconciliation of the GAAP and non-GAAP measures used in 2020 guidance without unreasonable effort because it is not possible to predict certain of our adjustment items with a reasonable degree of certainty. This information is dependent upon future events and may be outside of our control and its unavailability could have a significant impact on 2020 GAAP financial results.

** This rate reflects typical tax adjustments and does not reflect changes to the rate from the completion of income tax audit examinations, which cannot be predicted.

Third Quarter 2020 Highlights

 Associate Experience

Customer Obsession

Live Our Purpose

About Kroger

At The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR), we are Fresh for Everyone™ and dedicated to our Purpose: To Feed the Human Spirit®. We are, across our family of companies, nearly half a million associates who serve over 11 million customers daily through a seamless shopping experience under a variety of banner names. We are committed to creating #ZeroHungerZeroWaste communities by 2025. To learn more about us, visit our newsroom and investor relations site.

Kroger's third quarter 2020 ended on November 7, 2020.

Note: Fuel sales have historically had a low gross margin rate and operating expense rate as compared to corresponding rates on non-fuel sales. As a result, Kroger discusses the changes in these rates excluding the effect of fuel.

Please refer to the supplemental information presented in the tables for reconciliations of the non-GAAP financial measures used in this press release to the most comparable GAAP financial measure and related disclosure.

This press release contains certain statements that constitute "forward-looking statements" about the future performance of the company. These statements are based on management's assumptions and beliefs in light of the information currently available to it. Such statements are indicated by words or phrases such as “achieve,” “believe,” “contemplates,” “continue,” “deliver,” “expect,” “future,” “guidance,” “strategy,” “target,” “trends,” and “will.” Various uncertainties and other factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. These include the specific risk factors identified in “Risk Factors” in our annual report on Form 10-K for our last fiscal year and any subsequent filings, as well as the following:

Kroger assumes no obligation to update the information contained herein. Please refer to Kroger's reports and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a further discussion of these risks and uncertainties.

Note: Kroger's quarterly conference call with investors will broadcast live at 10 a.m. (ET) on December 3, 2020 at ir.kroger.com. An on-demand replay of the webcast will be available at approximately 1 p.m. (ET) on Thursday, December 3, 2020.

3^rd Quarter 2020 Tables Include:

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Contacts: Media: Kristal Howard (513) 762-1304; Investors: Rebekah Manis (513) 762-4969

Table 1.

THE KROGER CO.

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS

(in millions, except per share amounts)

(unaudited)

Table 2.

THE KROGER CO.

CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

(in millions)

(unaudited)

Table 3.

THE KROGER CO.

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS

(in millions)

(unaudited)

Table 4. Supplemental Sales Information

(in millions, except percentages)

(unaudited)    

Items identified below should not be considered as alternatives to sales or any other GAAP measure of performance.  Identical sales is an industry-specific measure and it is important to review it in conjunction with Kroger's financial results reported in accordance with GAAP.  Other companies in our industry may calculate identical sales differently than Kroger does, limiting the comparability of the measure.

IDENTICAL SALES (a)

Table 5.  Reconciliation of Net Total Debt and

Net Earnings Attributable to The Kroger Co. to Adjusted EBITDA

(in millions, except for ratio)

(unaudited)    

The items identified below should not be considered an alternative to any GAAP measure of performance or access to liquidity.  Net total debt to adjusted EBITDA is an important measure used by management to evaluate the Company's access to liquidity.  The items below should be reviewed in conjunction with Kroger's financial results reported in accordance with GAAP.

The following table provides a reconciliation of net total debt.

The following table provides a reconciliation from net earnings attributable to The Kroger Co. to adjusted EBITDA, as defined in the Company's credit agreement, on a rolling four quarter basis.

Table 6. Net Earnings Per Diluted Share Excluding the Adjustment Items

(in millions, except per share amounts)

(unaudited)

The purpose of this table is to better illustrate comparable operating results from our ongoing business, after removing the effects on net earnings per diluted common share for certain items described below.  Adjusted net earnings and adjusted net earnings per diluted share are useful metrics to investors and analysts because they present more accurately year-over-year comparisons for net earnings and net earnings per diluted share because adjusted items are not the result of normal operations.  Items identified in this table should not be considered alternatives to net earnings attributable to The Kroger Co. or any other GAAP measure of performance.  These items should not be reviewed in isolation or considered substitutes for the Company's financial results as reported in accordance with GAAP.  Due to the nature of these items, as further described below, it is important to identify these items and to review them in conjunction with the Company's financial results reported in accordance with GAAP.

The following table summarizes items that affected the Company's financial results during the periods presented.

Table 6. Net Earnings Per Diluted Share Excluding the Adjustment Items (continued)

(in millions, except per share amounts)

(unaudited)

Table 7. Operating Profit Excluding the Adjustment Items

(in millions)

(unaudited)

The purpose of this table is to better illustrate comparable operating results from our ongoing business, after removing the effects on operating profit for certain items described below. Adjusted FIFO operating profit is a useful metric to investors and analysts because it presents more accurately year-over year comparisons for operating profit because adjusted items are not the result of normal operations. Items identified in this table should not be considered alternatives to operating profit or any other GAAP measure of performance. These items should not be reviewed in isolation or considered substitutes for the Company's financial results as reported in accordance with GAAP. Due to the nature of these items, as further described below, it is important to identify these items and to review them in conjunction with the Company's financial results reported in accordance with GAAP.

The following table summarizes items that affected the Company's financial results during the periods presented.