Albertsons lays off corporate employees across the company. Here’s what we know

BOISE (Idaho Statesman) — Albertsons is laying off corporate and division support employees around the country, a spokesperson for the company told the Idaho Statesman on Wednesday. Store employees are not impacted by the cuts, the spokesperson said in a statement.

The Boise-based supermarket giant, on the heels of its breakup with rival grocer Kroger, said it recently turned its attention toward reducing general and administrative expenses.

The planned merger between the two chains was halted by a pair of judges in December. Albertsons then announced that it was terminating the deal and suing Kroger for billions of dollars, accusing its former business partner of having “buyer’s remorse.”

The spokesperson did not respond to a question Wednesday about how many employees were laid off. Reports from individual employees on social media indicate the number is likely in the hundreds.

“I was just laid off along with 100 other people at the call center in Arizona,” a Reddit user said Tuesday in the comment section of a post about the layoffs. Another user said about a dozen pharmacists were laid off the same day at a central processing center in Boise. Others chimed in to say they’d been laid off too.

The spokesperson said by email that the company is providing all the affected employees with severance packages, including extended benefits and career support services. The cuts were reported Tuesday by BoiseDev.

Albertsons CEO Vivek Sankaran hinted at the possibility of layoffs last year. He testified in the case brought by the Federal Trade Commission that without the merger with Kroger, he “would have to consider” job cuts, closures and abandoning some markets if the company cannot find other ways to lower costs.

The company released its third-quarter results Jan. 8, when Sankaran said Albertsons had delivered a solid financial performance.

“… Our company is in strong financial condition,” a spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday. “However, we cannot stand still and must constantly recalibrate our company to compete in a rapidly changing market.”