Albertsons Companies Inc

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, DC 20549

SCHEDULE 14A

(Rule 14a-101)

INFORMATION REQUIRED IN PROXY STATEMENT

SCHEDULE 14A INFORMATION

Proxy Statement Pursuant to Section 14(a) of the

Securities Exchange Act of 1934

(Amendment No. )

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Albertsons Companies, Inc.

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(Name of Person(s) Filing Proxy Statement, if other than the Registrant)

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June 21, 2024

Dear Fellow Stockholder:

It is my pleasure to invite you to attend the Annual Meeting of Stockholders of Albertsons Companies, Inc. at 3:00 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time on Thursday, August 8, 2024.

We continue to work diligently toward the closing of our proposed merger with Kroger. Through a family of well-known and trusted supermarket banners, this combination will expand customer reach and improve proximity to deliver fresh and affordable groceries to approximately 85 million households with a premier omnichannel experience. Merging with Kroger will also enable us to lower prices for customers, enhance the customer shopping experience, provide new career opportunities for our associates, protect union jobs, increase associate wages, and build on our shared commitment to supporting local communities.

While efforts on the merger were still underway in fiscal 2023, we remained laser-focused on our performance and execution as a stand-alone public company, and made significant progress against our strategic priorities. We continued to deliver on our Customers for Life strategy—investing approximately $2.0 billion in our stores and technology, while advancing our productivity initiatives to increase efficiency and drive cost savings. We also continued to live and fulfill our purpose of bringing people together around the joys of food and inspiring wellbeing.

I am incredibly proud of the way our team continued to serve customers and communities while driving solid operating and financial performance. Our results for fiscal 2023 speak to the significant progress we have made amidst industry-wide headwinds. Identical sales increased 3%, total sales were $79.2 billion, and net income was $1.3 billion, or $2.23 per share. Adjusted net income was $1.7 billion, or $2.88 per share, and Adjusted EBITDA was $4.3 billion. We also returned $276 million to our stockholders this fiscal year through common stock dividends.

To ensure we develop new and innovative ways to grow the business and serve our customers and communities in the future, we remained focused on our five strategic priorities during fiscal 2023.

Deepening our Digital Connection and Engagement with our Customers– This has been a critical priority for us for several years now and I am pleased to say we continued to make great strides across a variety of important digital initiatives. We increased loyalty membership by 16% to nearly 40 million customers and grew our digital sales by 22%. At the same time, we continued to strengthen and develop our capabilities in both Drive Up and Go and delivery, to provide our customers with speed and convenience—including 30-minute flash delivery service. We also launched Sincerely Health, a digital health and wellness platform that has deepened and extended the engagement we have with our customers.

Differentiating our Store Experience– We continued to enhance merchandising in our stores with displays designed to make it more convenient for our customers to assemble meals, and have added grab-and-go sections to allow customers to quickly select items from displays at the front of the store. We are also scaling the use of “in-store mode” within our mobile app, which provides a navigational tool to guide a customer’s journey through our store, assisting with the product location, quick access to deals, and other features. We are also enhancing the technology in our stores to automate and simplify tasks, enabling our associates to spend more time on high-touch and valued-added interactions with our customers.

Enhancing What We Offer– To enhance our value proposition for customers, we continued to refine and add to our Own Brands product portfolio, including the launch of new mix-and-match frozen meal solutions that provide high quality, convenient dinners for busy families. We also redesigned packaging on over 4,500 items during the year, including Signature Select, O Organics, and Open Nature, with refreshed modern logos and bold package design to build greater brand recognition. We elevated our distinctiveness in Fresh, tailoring our selection based on local demographics and preferences, enhanced our capabilities in pricing and assortment, and scaled our Ready Meals program to nearly 1,400 stores, now in more than 60% of our stores. In addition, we held our fourth Annual Supplier Diversity Program Summit to provide diverse-owned suppliers the opportunity to expand their business with Albertsons Companies.

Modernizing our Capabilities– We improved our supply chain through automation and continued the rollout of a new enterprise warehouse management system. We have also further developed the Albertsons Media Collective, an easy-to-use, transparent, and modern media collective platform that has dramatically improved our capabilities in client advocacy, innovation, and measurement. We also launched a new meal planning tool that provides shoppable meal plans and recipes on our grocery apps and websites, which includes a budget tracker and cooking guide complete with a built-in timer. This tool was voted the People’s Voice winner for best shopping and retail app in the 28 th annual Webby Awards for its seamless omnichannel shopping experience.

**Maximizing our Positive Impact –**We are committed to supporting causes that impact our customers’ lives and strengthen the communities we serve. In an effort to reduce food insecurity, we enabled more than 220 million meals through our store food donation program and the Nourishing Neighbors Program of the Albertsons Companies Foundation during fiscal 2023. From fiscal 2019 through 2023, we have enabled 1.15 billion meals. In addition, our O Organics brand launched its “Fight Hunger, Serve Hope” campaign to combat hunger for school-aged children during the summer months, and the Nourishing Neighbors Program donated more than $1 million to support meals for families affected by the wildfires in Maui, Hawaii.

Finally, I want to recognize the approximately 285,000 associates who have made our success possible through their commitment to meeting the needs of our customers and communities. Your dedication to serving our customers and communities is what makes our performance possible.

On behalf of our board of directors, thank you for your continued support and investment in Albertsons Companies.

Sincerely,

Chief Executive Officer and Director

Notice of Annual Meeting of Stockholders

IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING THE AVAILABILITY OF PROXY MATERIALS FOR THE ANNUAL MEETING TO BE HELD ON AUGUST 8, 2024. THE PROXY STATEMENT AND THE 2023 FORM 10-K ARE AVAILABLE AT http://materials.proxyvote.com/ YOUR VOTE IS IMPORTANT TO US. Whether or not you plan to virtually attend the Annual Meeting, it is important that your shares be represented. Therefore, we urge you to promptly vote and submit your proxy in advance of the Annual Meeting. You can vote your shares via the Internet, by telephone, or by signing, dating, and returning the proxy card or voting instruction form.

By Order of the Board of Directors,

Chief Executive Officer, Director