GROVELAND, Fla. – Around 1,000 employees at the Kroger fulfillment center in Groveland recently learned they will soon be out of work after the grocery chain announced it would close the facility.
Lake County commissioners are now exploring options to recover a little more $1.3 million paid under an economic incentive agreement with Kroger and Ocado.
Lake County Commissioner Sean Parks said certain requirements had to be met during the agreement for Kroger and Ocado Solutions to receive those incentive payments.
In a post on Facebook, Commissioner Parks explained how this works. In part, the post said:
“Kroger/Ocado paid their full property and tangible taxes each year—just like any other business in Lake County. Only after they demonstrated that they had met the required job creation, wage, and capital investment thresholds for that year did they become eligible to receive a grant. These grants function as partial reimbursements and are reviewed and awarded on a year-by-year basis, based strictly on performance.
Unlike, say, a college football coach who gets paid regardless of wins or losses, Kroger/Ocado had to meet strict yearly job creation and wage standards to receive a grant. And they did. For three consecutive years, they hired and retained hundreds of full-time employees at or above 115% of Lake County’s average wage. In doing so, they earned approximately $1.3 million in performance grants."
[BELOW: Kroger ending delivery in Florida, closing Lake County fulfillment center]
According to county documents, 943 jobs with Kroger and over 50 jobs with Ocado will be lost in Lake County as a result of the closure.
But with the facility closing before the 10-year economic incentive agreement expires, the county commission is preparing to discuss termination agreements for both companies.
“I’m angry about this and, you know, finding out so quickly and the rug being pulled out from underneath us is certainly angering to me,” Parks said.
While an exact closing date has not been specified, grocery delivery is set to end Feb. 1, 2026, leaving around 1,000 employees scrambling to find new jobs.
“Our staff is treating that literally with the urgency of, you know, some kind of natural disaster,” Parks said.
In addition to looking at ways to recover the incentive grant money, the county is also looking at reallocating the $400,000 it has budgeted in incentive grant money to CareerSource Central Florida.
According to the Dec. 2 county commission meeting agenda, if approved, that money would be used to oversee and sponsor education and training opportunities for Lake County residents who have been impacted by the facility’s shutdown.
[BELOW: Groveland residents, small businesses feel ‘hard hit’ by loss of Kroger facility]
“So I think that’s good news for them,” Parks said. “That will be allocating what was going to be that incentive directly to them to try to help them.”
While the county is focused on helping displaced workers, leaders are also looking at ways to recover the more than $1.2 million paid to Kroger and Ocado Solutions as part of the 10-year agreement.
“It was a 10-year deal, and we were only in year three or four of this deal,” Parks said. ”But we will explore every avenue, pursue every avenue to try to get all of the incentives back because, yeah, it’s angering and it angers me for sure,” Parks said.
In the proposed termination agreements, the county aims to recover $460,714.53 from Kroger and $871,998.48 from Ocado Solutions.
According to the county, Kroger opened the facility in partnership with Ocado Solutions.
Based on information from the Ocado Group’s website, Ocado Group announced a partnership with Kroger in May of 2018 and an initial commitment to build capacity equivalent to 20 CFCs (Customer Fulfillment Centers) across the United States.
On the Ocado Group’s website, it lists the Groveland CFC under a section titled “Partnership Milestones.”
When asked if the protections built into the incentive agreement are enough to recover the money, Parks said, “Well, that is a legal question. I will definitely let our attorney answer. I can say personally, if it’s a 10-year deal, it’s a 10-year deal. And that’s why I have said personally, I believe that it should come back.”
The county’s letter notifying Ocado of a possible breach of contract states that because Kroger publicly announced the closure, the announcement supports that the Ocado-powered portion of the site would also cease operations.
News 6 has reached out to both The Ocado Group and Kroger for comment on the proposed termination agreements but has not yet received a response.
The termination agreements, as well as the reallocation of money to CareerSource, are set to be discussed at the upcoming Lake County Commission meeting on Dec. 2.