CRAIN’S LIST: See updated headcounts for the area’s largest employers. PAGE 13
GREG HINZ: Factors to consider in voting for mayor. PAGE 2
CHICAGOBUSINESS.COM | FEBRUARY 27, 2023 | $3.50
DAVID PLUNKERT
Merger means big squeeze for food companies FORUM I THE STATE OF ESG
RED, BLUE AND ESG
Policymakers and investors are forced to grapple with the political divide over the investing framework intended to manage risk and solve problems PAGE 15 FIND THE COMPLETE SERIES ONLINE
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A Kroger-Albertsons combo would have the heft to demand price cuts from packaged-food suppliers like Kraft Heinz, Conagra and Mondelez BY ALLY MAROTTI Chicago’s packaged-food giants are in for painful pricing pressure if the Kroger-Albertsons merger goes through and the megagrocer flexes newfound buying muscle. Mariano’s parent Kroger agreed last fall to acquire JewelOsco parent Albertsons in a $24.6 billion deal that would create a giant chain with 5,000 stores and 85 million households within its reach. The chain’s 17% grocery market share would be second only to Walmart’s 22.4%. Executives have signaled that they’ll use the combined companies’ scale to squeeze suppliers for price cuts as they work to
deliver the cost synergies Wall Street expects from the merger. That’s bad news for Chicagobased food manufacturers such as Kraft Heinz, Mondelez and Conagra, which can’t afford to lose a customer so large. If they resist cutting prices, a combined Kroger-Albertsons can buy more from their competitors or give more shelf space to private-label products. Price-cutting demands would come at a time when inflation has increased costs for food manufacturers. So far, they’ve offset the resulting margin pressure by raising prices, without hurting sales volumes much. But See GROCERY PRICES on Page 8
At 66, the Rev. James Meeks launches a second career BY DENNIS RODKIN When he announced his retirement from the pulpit of his 10,000seat church on 114th Street in January, the Rev. James Meeks told the congregation how he plans to spend his retirement years: building homes in the neighborhood. A few weeks later, as Meeks stood on the corner of 118th Street and Indiana Avenue in Chicago’s Roseland neighborhood,
where he expects to break ground on the first 20 homes this spring, he said it’s not so much a retirement project as an extension of the work he’s been doing for four decades. “I’ve always thought that a church that didn’t come outside its four walls to build its community isn’t worth its salt,” said Meeks, the 66-year-old pastor emeritus of Salem Baptist Church and a former Illinois state senator.
In a long-disinvested neighborhood, revitalization is an uphill battle, fraught with obstacles like financing, high crime, the stability of homeowners who convert from renting and, according to Meeks, “skepticism.” Looking around the blocks on his project map, many of them gap-toothed with vacant lots, it’s difficult to picture the change he foresees.
JOHN R. BOEHM
The recently retired pastor and onetime mayoral candidate looks to fill vacant lots in Chicago’s Roseland neighborhood with affordable new houses
The Rev. James Meeks
See MEEKS on Page 14
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HEALTH CARE
REAL ESTATE
CVS’ Oak Street buyout closes a gap in race with Walgreens. PAGE 3
Grayslake villa was a reminder of Mediterranean vacations. PAGE 27