Bed Bath & Beyond At Kroger? Home Goods Retailer Soars With Announcement Of Grocer Tie-Up

Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) shares were soaring in premarket trading on Wednesday, up over 50% in the early morning hours, after the home goods retailer announced a venture with Kroger, where it would sell some of its product online and in the grocer’s stores starting in early 2022.

The partnership with Kroger is part of an effort to reach new consumers and expand its revenue stream. Bed Bath & Beyond will sell merchandise – some that is part of its private-label brands.

The partnership also gives Kroger more competitiveness as it offers more than groceries, going up against rivals like Walmart and Target by offering home and baby items online and in stores.

Neil Saunders, the managing director of GlobalData Retail, said in a note to clients, obtained by CNN, that the tie-up between the two companies was beneficial to both.

“Kroger represents a huge channel for Bed Bath & Beyond and can bring more shoppers into contact with the brand. This alone will help the company resolve one of its key issues: remaining on the consumer radar. Kroger itself needs to push beyond groceries and bolster its non-food business, so the partnership with Bed Bath & Beyond makes strategic sense,” Saunders wrote.

At the same time that Bed Bath & Beyond announced the deal with Kroger, it also said it would start a third-party marketplace online where it will “expand its assortment of key products from a highly curated selection of third-party brand partners.”

With the announcement on Tuesday, Bed Bath & Beyond’s stock soared about 80% by Wednesday morning, CNN reported.

However, Bed Bath & Beyond has seen its stock ride a volatile swing over the course of the last few months as it has been considered a meme-stock with support from Reddit fans, CNN said.

But Bed Bath & Beyond is not alone in partnering up with other companies to attract more consumers to its stores. Target has entered into several ventures recently to offer pop-up shops in its stores, including Ulta, Disney and Apple, while Kohl’s has partnered with Sephora for in-store shops, and Walmart has entered into a deal with Gap to sell home goods on its website.

Bed Bath & Beyond also said it plans to complete a $1 billion share repurchase by the end of fiscal 2021.

As of Wednesday premarket hours, Bed Bath & Beyond was trading at $25.84, up $9.09, or 54.27%.