Kendra Doyel may have one of the most well-rounded careers among today’s supermarket industry leaders.
Named president of Kroger’s Food 4 Less/Foods Co division in April, Doyel started as a pharmacist in the company’s Fry’s division in 1998 and wound through several departments and responsibilities on her way to leading 101 Food 4 Less and Foods Co stores in California, Illinois and Indiana.
Doyel succeeded retiring grocery veteran Bryan Kaltenbach at the head of Food 4 Less, whose stores offer a full range of grocery and household products at everyday low prices, and she knows those are big shoes to fill. But she is up for the challenge, as she has been throughout her career.
She’s committed to embracing Food 4 Less’ strong foundation and keep building on it with people – both shoppers and team members – at the forefront.
Following are excerpts from Doyel’s conversation with Bob Reeves, Shelby EVP and associate publisher – West, about her path to leading Food 4 Less and the people and experiences that have helped her along the way.
You’ve had an amazing career with Kroger. How many years has it been?
I’ve been with the company for a little over 26 years. I came to this company, the Fry’s division in Arizona, as a pharmacist and loved that part of the business but then was able to go into other parts of the business. There’s not a lot of industries that will allow for those hard right and left turns like ours.
At Fry’s, a leader saw something different in me and asked me to go into public relations, so I did that for a few years. Then the company asked me to head over to California, which was a wonderful blessing, in 2008.
I came to the Ralphs and Food 4 Less divisions and did public affairs and government relations and some customer communications and marketing as well. It was a really scary move at the time – moving two small children – but it really taught me a lot about myself and the family and the business and afforded me the opportunity to go on and try other things.
I did a brief stint in HR, which was an incredible learning experience, then went on to VP of merchandising for Ralphs only. Then I went on to Fred Meyer [as] VP of merchandising there.
And now back to Southern California with the Food 4 Less family.
What led you to a career as pharmacist?
I am a big ol’ science nerd. I have degrees in psychology, biology and chemistry, and then went to pharmacy school. I always wanted a career in medicine; that was what I thought my path would be. I had an uncle who was a pharmacist, and my parents were both in medicine.
If I’m being honest, it was a tough call [to leave pharmacy]. My parents are very central to my life, and when I called to tell my dad that I was going to step out of pharmacy into public relations … I had to do some selling, let’s just put it that way. It was definitely not something I ever saw myself doing.
Did your pharmacy education help you in your career?
Absolutely, without question. I am such a big believer in education. I think it’s critical that all of us are lifelong learners and continue to educate ourselves every single day. I think it’s the best way to stay young and impactful in everything that we do.
That pharmacy education … was quite the challenge. It taught me, A, that I can do hard things, but B, the dedication that it takes to do those things. That’s carried through my career.
Having that kind of variety in your background means you can talk to almost anybody, right?
It absolutely does. In the pharmacy, one of the things that I was most focused on was educating patients about their health and their medicine. You have to do that in a way that is not “science” language but human language.
That carries through to [our] business as well. We’re in such a human industry, and people are the core of everything we do. I think pharmacy really helped me to hone that and focus on what’s important.
I would suspect you’re going to be a big fosterer of education for the people at Food 4 Less.
That will remain core and central to everything we do at Food 4 Less – to help educate our associates and help them to grow their careers to whatever level they want.
I’m very proud that we have an English as a Second Language class we offer to our associates. I want to expand on that and continue to help more associates who want to be a part of that and the [USC] FIM program and all the other educational opportunities. That will be absolutely critical that I continue that story.
And making sure that I empower people to speak up will be important for me. For people to [feel free to] raise their hand and say, “I really want to do this,” or “I can do this.”
The other side of that is, of course, tapping people on the shoulder to say, “Hey, I think you should do this,” like so many have done for me. That will be core to the work I want to do as I go forward.
When you went up to Portland [Oregon] for Fred Meyer, did you buy a home there? Were you kind of settling in when you were moved down here to Southern California to Food 4 Less?
Coming to Fred Meyer was such an amazing opportunity because I learned other sides of the business – jewelry, clothing, automotive, gardening, all those things.
When we came up here, we were all in; this is home. I was moving a sophomore in high school, so we had to really put down roots. We bought a home and love the area that we’re in … Camas, Washington. I absolutely love it here; it’s been a wonderful move. It’s bittersweet to go back, but we’re thrilled to be coming home.
What are your aspirations for Food 4 Less as a leader, following in the footsteps of Bryan Kaltenbach?
My central focus, honestly, is to honor the past but help Food 4 Less create the future. That really is the lens I’m putting everything through, because they do have such a storied past with Bryan’s leadership.
It’s a little intimidating following that guy because he is such a remarkable leader, and I’m so honored and, quite frankly, humbled that they’ve given me this opportunity to walk in his footsteps. It’s important to me that I do honor everything he’s created but help to move Food 4 Less to its next chapter.
Number one for me every single day is people, whether that’s our associates or customers. Helping [associates] on their journey and helping our customers to find fresh food in their neighborhood at a great value are critical. It’s about staying true to who Food 4 Less is and doing what we do really well and taking it to the next level.
We know who we are, the consumer knows who we are, so our focus will be … empowering our team to deliver a great experience every single day. To be a company that they’re proud to represent and that they’re proud to take home to their families as well, I think is critical.
Food 4 Less is very much like a family. It’s so remarkable how Bryan has created that culture. When you get a new job, you get a lot of emails from people just saying congratulations, which is also humbling and overwhelming. But 95 percent of the ones that came from Food 4 Less associates started out not with “congratulations” but with “welcome home.”
I’ve not shared that with anyone, but it truly … took my breath away when I would open those emails and see so many of those associates at every rank and level just start out with “welcome home.” I think that embodies what Food 4 Less is and what I want to continue to perpetuate.
Who are your mentors?
That is such a tough question… The golden snowflake in my life is I’ve been blessed with so many.
On the personal side, my parents, my entire life, have nudged me forward and been just incredible mentors. If I could do it half as good as them, I will have a life well lived.
Without question, my husband John never fails to tell me, yes, I can, and I often need that. I couldn’t have done any of these moves without him.
On the professional side, Mike Donnelly [retired Kroger EVP and COO] was the first leader who came to me, when I was in pharmacy, and said, “I see something different in you, and I want you to come and try a different role and create a team.” I’m wildly grateful to him, and he continues to be a mentor that is very important to this day.
Valerie Jabbar [Kroger SVP-retail divisions] has never failed to encourage me. We’ve been together since day one at Fry’s. She’s a strong leader that always puts people first, and I often try to emulate her.
And then, lastly, Mike Murphy. He was the one that gave me the chance to leap from HR to merchandising and the VP role that really helped me to see that, yes, I could be a division president and a darn good one.
There’s so many that I’m not mentioning, but my grandmother, I remember her at a very young age telling me it’s critical that you surround yourself with good people and people that challenge you and make you better.
I absolutely would look her in the eye today and tell her I have done that because of all those amazing people that are part of my personal board of directors that have made a real difference in my life and my family’s life.
Can you share with us any plans regarding the future of Food 4 Less?
Food 4 Less is absolutely in a growth mindset. That can mean a lot of things, from new stores all the way down to product expansion or expanding categories that really matter to the customer.
We are a value grocery store, and value means a lot of things, not just price. Consumers in general are saying value is incredibly important to them, and I think that is going to continue – at least that’s what my crystal ball says – for the time being.
So, helping consumers understand and know the value that is Food 4 Less is really the focus as of now, but no question, I want to continue to grow this division and help reach more communities.
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