Whole Foods Market: Business Overview

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 has drastically improved from the time it had started in 1978. The company has gone through some hard times, but has also seen many good moments. After all, it is listed in Forbes top 100 companies. Without the young couple making a move towards creating a store that sells natural food, we may not be living in a generation where healthy and natural foods is considered important. The case study will discuss Whole Foods Market’s history, development, and growth of the company over time; a SWOT analysis; corporate-level strategies; business-level strategies; organizational structure; and recommendations. The company has done very well with expansions and becoming known throughout the entire world in only 38 years. While there will always be the ability to purchase processed foods, there is now a healthier option for the people who would rather spend a little more money on natural foods. Overall, Whole Foods is trying to make the world a healthier place.

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.

In response to your request for a thorough analysis of the strategic position of Whole Foods Markets, and the industry in which it operates, an analysis has been performed and the results can be found below. In conclusion, a recommendation for Whole Foods Markets, based on the analysis, will be given.

From a strategic perspective, I believe that Whole Foods is executing at an extremely high level. Currently, Whole Foods is the market leader in its niche (organic food). Whole Foods has an international presence while also boasting some of the largest shop sizes compared that of its rivals. This allows for products from all over the world to be stored on their shelves while also allowing for more exotic displays to show off their products. Profits have “grown at a compound average rate of 30.4 percent” and it also has one of the strongest social media presences all of retailers in the world.

Whole Foods strategy performed sound well from a strategic perspective. Whole Foods Market became a leader in the organic and natural retailer WFM’s strategy seems to have produced a successful outcomes. Whole Food Market has totally 379 stores with 15 000 square feet- 75000 squared feet in 2014 and become the largest and biggest retailer in the organic and natural segments. Whole Food Market picks target metropolitan areas with the growth of 10-23 stores per year since 1991. These stores often located in the high – traffic shopping locations on premier real estate site.

The fundamental elements of Whole Foods Market revolve around offering the finest organic and natural foods to the customers through the retail grocery stores. It strives to sell products of the highest quality, most flavorful, least processed, freshest, and naturally preserved food available. Whole Foods market ensures that the goods are not just labeled organic; instead, they are grown and treated without hormones, pesticides, artificial fertilizers, and other additives. In this case, the ability to deliver superior value to customers under sound environmentally Fair Trade Practices best depicts Whole Foods. It is in tandem with the food industry, although part of its success originates from the narrow market

The business level strategy that Whole Foods Market utilizes is differentiation strategy. Whole Foods is focused on selling natural and organic foods. The intention is that customers will value the high quality of the organic food and eventually pay a high price. Also, WFM nurtures customer loyalty by providing unique products. For example, Whole Foods features “foods that are free of artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, sweeteners, and hydrogenated fats.” (7) Also, Whole Foods has implemented animal welfare standards. The animals are not treated with antibiotics when preventing diseases and infections or when developing their growth. Additionally, to demonstrated customers that they care for the farm animals they developed a 5 Step Animal

When analyzing Whole Foods Market, it is apparent that the firm aligns strategies with the organization’s eight core values. Whole Foods product strategy brings consumers an assortment of high-quality organic, natural products that bring nourishment to customers and made it possible for the company to be environmental stewards. The companies merchandising strategy creates a delightful experience by positions goods and services appropriately for each location. The growth strategy of Whole Foods has helped them create wealth and grow into different areas locally and globally. The supply strategy has given local suppliers the ability to provide products to stores in their region and has helped to uphold Whole Foods commitment to serving and supporting local communities. Whole Foods has also been able to improve partnership with suppliers through their loan program that helps local partners

The company’s mixture of collective knowledge and core capabilities in the natural food industry has allowed Whole Foods the competency to not only establish a solid brand recognition in this market, but has afforded them the opportunity to remain competitive in the grocery industry. Their effective organizational development, integrated with the team of five senior executives, who function as a CEO team, collaboratively make decisions in all facets of the company’s strategic initiatives.

Whole Foods has incorporated the strategy to become the top food retailer that sells the healthiest foods that are both natural and organic. The company’s strategy classified as differentiation strategy, where they attract specific market consumers and supplying the store with products that satisfy customers’ preferences and tastes. To make this possible, Whole Foods uses numerous elements for their strategy so that they can accomplish everything from the products they sell, expanding store locations, prices, marketing, and growth.

The supermarket industry is seeing a shift with more customers opting for “organic” and “fresh” foods over “processed” and “packaged” foods. The grocery stores are now focused on the health of the customers and the environment than pursuing mass-market sales volume and narrow margins. The grocer that is doing an exceptional job is the Whole Foods Market.

Whole Foods Market is a company that has been through the Product Life Cycle. Whole Foods has been very successful and is in the maturity stage. It is the top performing help food chain in the United States. Whole foods marketing mix of product, price, place, and promotion has been successful. However, as more stores are offering organic and specialty foods, they are declining in sales. Whole foods needs new marketing strategies to prevent further decline and promote growth.

At Whole Foods we are able to use America’s trend of healthy living that allows us to thrive under a focused differentiation strategy. Americans are willing to spend extra money on our products since we go out of our way to guarantee the products are organic. We are able to achieve growth in our market by opening on average ten stores per quarter across the nation. We plan to reach a total of one thousand domestic stores in the future.

Whole foods is a natural/organic food market who has developed a “game changing business model which is wrapped inside an even more iconoclastic management model” (Hamel, 2007). Whole Foods business and management models creates a competitive work environment that fosters care, trust and innovation. Because of the unique organization and management Whole Foods Market, Inc. is the largest natural-foods grocer in the United States with more than 360 stores in the U. S., Canada and the United Kingdom. Whole Foods 2013 annual sales were $12.9 billion, with an operating profit of $893 million and cash flow of 472 million.