Mergers, Acquisitions, And International Strategies

Whole Foods Market’s first retail location was in Austin, Texas. Today there are 342 stores in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. The growth of this health conscious conglomerate happened over the years by strategic acquisitions of profitable independent stores throughout United States. Mackey’s idealism and respect is exhibited in his openness about the contributions of these retailers to the success of WFM, as the website provides an in depth summary of each acquisition and its contribution to promoting healthier food choices (Whole Foods Market History, 2014). After four years in Austin, Texas WFM branched out into the city of Houston when it purchased the Whole Foods Company, and shortly after, on the west coast, a new store was built in Palo Alto, California. Subsequently WFM began aggressive acquisitions over the next few years, which help to accelerate the growth rate of WFM in other geographical locations. In 2002 WFM opened in Canada and in 2004 through the acquisition of United Kingdom’s grocery chain Fresh & Wild, it opened seven stores. Holistic eating is a worldwide affair that WFM is taking advantage

Whole Foods Market was initiated its business in Austin, Texas, Their initial creators were John Mackey and Renee Lawson Hardy, owners of different places where you got natural foods. The original Whole Foods Marketplace started in 1980 with only 19 people in the company. Now Whole Food Market is the best seller in natural and organic foods. At this moment they had more than 310 stores in the North America and Europe. The company keeps the excellent quality in the industry all the time.

The mergers with great reputation brands not only elevated Whole Foods Market’s character, but also stabled its market position. In 1991, Wellspring Grocery joined Whole Foods Market. Similar to Whole Food, Wellspring Grocery started with a positive attitude toward changing the market. Unlike other grocery stores, it wanted to bring healthy diet on shelves, rather than pills and canned food. This idea brought attention to what people are consuming daily. Second merger happened one year after Wellspring Grocery’s success. Bread and Circus, a company that used to sell natural food and wooden toys, valued costumer’s opinion. Costumers were happy to shop in Bread and Circus. Its expeditiously expansion caught Whole Foods Market’s attention. In order to stable its market not only in Taxes, it decided to purchase Bread and Circus. Last, Mrs. Gooch’s, a grocery store that targeted on allergic

Whole Foods Market Inc. is a popular retail destination for natural and organic foods and byproducts, since its establishment in 1980 by four local businesspeople in Austin, Texas. It is notable for supporting sustainable agriculture, promoting the reduction of waste and consumption of nonrenewable resources and encouraging environmentally safe cleaning and store-maintenance programs. The company showcases its ethics and social responsibility through its green mission, foundations, and Whole Trade Guarantee.

Whole Foods Market, Inc, is an Austin, Texas based foods grocery that has the finest natural and organic food available, including produce, seafood, grocery, meat and poultry, bakery, prepared foods and catering, beer, wine, cheese; in addition to whole body, floral, pet products, and household products. Whole Foods is among the most profitable health food retailers in the United States. The rapid growth and market success has much to do with having remained a uniquely mission-driven company, highly selective about what they sell, dedicated to their core values, stringent quality standards, and committed to sustainable agriculture.

Whole Foods Market, Inc. was founded and created by four business people in Austin, TX during 1980. The founders opened Whole Foods Market because they wanted a supermarket that offered natural foods. This company was able to be successful because at the time they opened there were less than half a dozen natural food supermarkets in the United Sates. In 1984, they build stores in Houston and Dallas, they then moved to New Orleans, and eventually to the West Coast. A major part of Whole Foods growth has come from the many mergers and acquisitions with companies that have occurred throughout the years. The mergers and acquisitions gave Whole Foods’ even revenues to move to the East Coast.

Whole Foods Market, Inc. (WFM) was founded in Austin, Texas and is a supermarket chain concentrating in organic and natural foods. John Mackey, Rene Lawson Hardy, Craig Weller. The first store opened on September 20, 1980. Whole Foods Markets are located in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Since 1980, Whole Foods Market has remained committed to upholding their missions and values within their company. Whole Foods Market’s motto—“Whole Foods, Whole People, Whole Planet—emphasizes that our vision reaches beyond food retailing” (Whole Foods Market, 2014). Whole Foods Market has committed as an organization in “helping support the health, well-being, and healing of both people—customers, Team Members, and business

* For the corporation that has acquired another company, merged with another company, or been acquired by another company, evaluate the strategy that led to the merger or acquisition to determine whether or not this merger or acquisition was a wise choice. Justify your opinion.

* In 1996 Whole Foods Markets acquires Fresh Field Markets picking up 22 stores located on the east coast and Chicago area for 4.8 million shares of common stock and an option for 549,000 additional shares. (Thompson, 2010; C-13)

Although Whole Foods Market not only survived the recession but also has seen steady growth since 2009, its’ business model is not sustainable in the longer term. Compared with its competitors’ prices (Whole Foods being pricier), and receiving the nickname “whole paycheck,” Whole Foods has serious competition, especially with its competitor Kroger. Kroger’s net income was approximately $1.5 billion the past year, while Whole Food’s had a net income around $500 million. Also, having a pure grocery market company puts limitation on its growth in the future makes Whole Foods not sustainable. Companies selling only groceries have to compete with maintaining lower prices, which takes away from its profit margin, compared to companies like Wal-Mart

Whole Foods’ strategy can be divided into four sections: growth strategy, store location strategy, pricing strategy and merchandising strategy. • Growth strategy: Expanding by a combination of opening new stores and acquiring small owner-managed chains. - The period of 1992 to 2001 experienced Whole Foods main acquisitions stage as they acquired seven small chains, accounts for 45 stores. - Afterward, acquiring slowed down and became less important in Whole Food growth strategy.

The prediction of organic products’ market growth is from $6.5 billion in 1999 to $13.3 billion in 2003. Generally, there are few characteristics of shoppers who purchased organic products regardless of channel which are higher income, more educated person and mostly live in the Northeast and West. 46% of them bought organic products at the supermarket, 25% at a small health foods store and 29% at a natural foods supermarket. Organic dairy products were bought by 74% of heavy organic food buyers and 29% of light organic food buyers.

Whole Market Foods (here by called the company) is a domestic company headquartered in Austin, Texas, United States operating 284 stores in the United States and 11 internationally as of September, 2009 (Annual Stakeholders Report 2009). The company is operating through subsidiaries (here by called stores) domestically and internationally and are wholly owned by the company. Local stores domestically and internationally administer operations and values chains set by headquarters. With stores operating actively within the United Kingdom and Canada, a similar approach will be used towards its expansion into Bergen, Norway. As an

Whole Food Market’s first store opened in Austin, Texas in 1980, when several store owners joined together to start selling natural foods at the supermarket level. It started with a staff of only 19 people and has now grown to 422 stores in the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom. Whole Foods Market regards itself as a “mission-driven company” that works with local growers and other producers to provide the “finest natural and organic foods available” and “maintain the strictest quality standards in the industry.”

Whole Foods is a local grocery store everyone has heard of. Recently Amazon has bought Whole foods for 13.7 billion dollars. Amazon plans to keep the name but make some major changes. Competitors are going to need to make some fast improvements to keep up with the “new” Whole Foods.