In a move to accelerate innovation, Kroger in-house data shop 84.51 has created a science and technology solutions team and related venture dubbed 84.51 Labs. Led by chief data and technology officer Todd James, the team will work to deliver solutions that advance how shoppers engage in the retail experience at Kroger.

Utilizing first-party customer purchase data, the team will work to drive its insights-to-activation engine and unlock the ability to scale sciences through platform engineering, according to a news release.

Former senior director at Capital One, Christina Garcia, recently joined the 84.51 leadership team as senior vice president of engineering. Garcia will be responsible for the company's software engineering, data, architecture, security teams and technical capabilities. At Capital One, she led significant portions of the cloud journey and built an engineering function for a key commercial venture.

With the goal of accelerating innovation, 84.51 Labs aims to reinvent grocery from a merchandising perspective and power decisions that impact CPG shoppers and Kroger category managers.

Led by Andrew Cron, chief scientist, SVP, science, 84.51 Labs will pursue a diversified portfolio of data science technology opportunities with a focus on business impact and scaling business teams. Labs’ leadership will work on business planning processes to develop business cases and align roadmaps for incubation and adoption, according to the release.

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