Cincinnati-based Kroger, the world’s fourth-largest retailer, is firing on all cylinders these days.

The stock price is way up, and so are sales. Last year, Kroger pulled in $98 billion in sales. That’s almost double the business it was doing in the early 2000s.

Business is so good the supermarket chain is hiring 20,000 more workers.

Jim Hertel, managing partner at Willard Bishop, says that’s quite a feat, considering the fierce competition in the grocery business.

“They are surviving better than any of the traditional supermarket competitors relative to Wal-Mart,” says Hertel.

Kroger owns a number of grocery chains, like high-end Harris Teeter stores in the Southeast. It also has no-frills outfits like Food 4 Less.

The company has kept pace with the competition by cutting prices on grocery staples, building its own private brand “Simple Truth” into a near $1 billion business and boosting customer loyalty with personalized coupons, thanks to its sophisticated data analytics.

Kroger’s chairman, Dave Dillon, has even called data analytics the company’s “secret weapon.”