Kroger Co. Spends $1 Billion Annually with Minority and Women-owned Suppliers

Summary:  The Kroger Co. joins IBM, Proctor & Gamble and eleven others as they are honored by  Billion Dollar Roundtable Inc. for spending $1 billion dollars annually with minority- and women-owned business suppliers.

Topic:  Should the new administration offer incentives for investing in women-owned businesses?

Category:  Journalistic

What is it?  A news article from  Progressive Grocer accessed through the LexiNexis academic search database.  Progressive Grocer is an online publication

Title:  Kroger Joins Forum for Firms Committed to Minority, Women-owned Businesses.

Publication Information:  Progressive Grocer, May 25, 2007.  Cincinnati, OH.  Text obtained through LexisNexis academic search online database.

Author:  No author attribution is provided.

Location:  LexiNexis online search database.  Online publication, Progressive Grocer.  Search entry:  Women-owned Businesses

Accessed:  January 30th, 2009.  15:10 PST

Support:

Carver Johnson- Kroger’s chief diversity officer.

Billion Dollar Roundtable Inc.-  Corporate Supply Chain Diversity

Proctor & Gamble Co.

IBM Corporation

Carver Johnson was elected Kroger’s chief diversity officer in 2006.  Before the election he was Group Vice President of Management Information Systems.  Billion Dollar Roundtable is an organization established in 2001 to recognize and celebrate corporations that achieved spending of at least $1 billion with minority and woman-owned suppliers.  The BDR encourages corporate entities to continue growing their supplier diversity programs by increasing commitment and spending levels each year.  The BDR is sponsored by Minority Business News U.S.A. Proctor & Gamble Co. has been selected as one of the “Global 100 most sustainable corporations” according to their home website.  They are also praises for their innovative business practices.  Sam Palmisano, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, of IBM is working with president Obama to address the importance of economic recovery.

Audience and Agenda:  Progressive Grocer has been in print for 84 years.  They have an online publication as well as print.  It contains research-based editorials involving the retail food industry.  Readership generally consists of top-management at headquarters and decision-makers at store level.

Usefulness:  This short article is useful because it introduces companies that have a specific affirmative action agenda with regards to spending.  Companies are celebrated and acknowledged for doing business with minority and women-owned businesses.  The companies included in  the Billion Dollar Roundtable have an advantage as far as public relations is concerned.   The fact that Billion Dollar Roundtable is sponsored by Minority Business News U.S.A. shows that steps are being put into place to grow businesses owned by minorities and women.

Works Cited:

http://www.kroger.com/Pages/default.aspx

http://people.forbes.com/profile/carver-l-johnson/78816

http://www.bdrusa.org/about_us.php

http://www.mbnusa.biz/

http://www.pg.com/en_US/index.shtml

http://www.ibm.com/ibm/sjp/

http://www.progressivegrocer.com/progressivegrocer/about-us/index.jsp


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One Response

  1. [...] Kroger Co. Spends $1 Billion Annually with Minority- and Women- Owned Suppliers [...]

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