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Whole Foods Market

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Whole Foods Market
Table of Contents
1. Overview………………………………………………………………………………………………. 1
2. Industry Analysis……………………………………………………………………………………... 1
3. Key Macro External Factor………………………………………………………...………………... 3
4. Porter Five Force Model……………………………………………………………………………... 4
5. Industry Driving Force……………………………………………………………...………………... 5
6. Opportunities and Threats…………………………..……………………………...………………... 6
7. Industry’s Key Success Factor……………………………………..……………….………………... 9

1. WHOLE FOODS MARKET, INC. OVERVIEW
Whole foods Market is one of the leading grocery stores in natural and organic food industry. It is the first national “Certified Organic” grocer and has specifically positioned itself in the natural and organic foods supermarkets segment. John Mackey, founder of the company, started SaferWay Natural Foods in Austin, Texas. The company operated in 1978 and opened the first Whole foods market after merging SaferWay with Clarksville Natural Grocery in 1980. The company’s mission is to promote the vitality and well-being of all individuals by supplying the highest quality, most wholesome foods available (Whole foods market, Inc, 2014b). The company’s product selection ranges are grocery, meat, seafood, prepared foods and catering, bakery, coffee, tea, wine, beer, cheese, vitamins, nutritional supplements, body care, and lifestyle products including pet products, books, and household products (Whole foods market, Inc, 2014a). As of September 28, 2014, the company operated 399 stores in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The average customer visits per week is over 7.7 millions (Whole foods market, Inc, 2014b).
The company’s growth strategy is to expand mainly through new store openings, meanwhile the company may use acquisitions of smaller chains that provide access to targeted geographic areas. In 1996, its biggest acquisition was Fresh Fields, the second-largest US natural foods chain (22 stores on the East Coast and in Chicago) (Elstrott, 2015). As of September 28,


References: 1. Arun Gupta. (2014, June 23). How Walmart Threatens Organic Food. In These Times, Retrieved from http://inthesetimes.com/article/16785/how_walmart_threatens_organic_food //not using anymore 2 3. First research. (February 2, 2015). Grocery Stores & Supermarket Industry Profile. 4 5. Hellman, J. (2014). Whole Foods Market- A short SWOT Analysis. 6. MarketLine, (2014). Whole Foods Market, Inc., Swot Analysis, 4-8, Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com.mcc1.library.csulb.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=111b0671-0fe3-4db7-8433-d9e3b15aba07%40sessionmgr111&vid=4&hid=105 7 8. Whole Foods Market, Inc. (2014a). Retrieved April 12, 2015, from http://www.mergentonline.com.mcc1.library.csulb.edu/companydetail.php?compnumber=71872&pagetype=synopsis //site article name not website // apa mergent online nodate 9 10. (Mazzone & Associates, 2014).  http://www.globalmna.com/announcements/2014RetailIndustryReport.pdf 11 12. Shelly Banjo. (2014, April 10). Expensive Organic Food Beware: Wal-Mart Declares a Price War. Wall Street Journal, Retrieved from http://blogs.wsj.com/corporate-intelligence/2014/04/10/expensive-organic-food-beware-wal-mart-declares-a-price-war/ 13 14. Whole foods market, Inc. (2014b) . 2014 annual report of Whole foods market, Inc. Retrieved April 12,20 15, from http://assets.wholefoodsmarket.com/www/company-info/investor-relations/annual-reports/2014-WFM-10K.pdf 15
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