Whole Foods Market

Whole Foods Market

Introduction

Whole Foods Market is the world's largest organic and natural food retailer. Founded in 1980 by John Mackey, the company had grown with 276 stores and $6.6 billion in sales in 2007. The company sought to offer the highest quality, least processed, and most flavorful and naturally preserved foods available. Whole Foods became the world's largest organic and natural food retailer by observing and setting trends in the organic and natural foods market, watched and analyzed their competition, watches out for the environmental impacts for the products they sell, identifies their Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunity, Threats continually, and uses their strengths and opportunities to sustain their competitive advantage. Whole Foods company motto is 'Whole Foods, Whole People, Whole Planet'.

Trends in organic foods and their impact on Whole Foods Market

Organic foods are a special subset of natural foods as they have to be grown and processed without the use of pesticides, antibiotics, hormones, synthetic chemicals, artificial fertilizers, preservatives, dyes or additives, or genetic engineering to display the organic label. Organic foods include fresh fruits, vegetables, meats and certain processed foods.

1990 saw the passage of the Organic Food Production Act. October 2002, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) officially established labeling standards into four categories: 100% Organic, Organic Products, made with 70% organic ingredients, all other products containing some organic ingredients.

In 2003 Whole Foods was the first national 'Certified Organic' grocer that carried the USDA organic seal, by Quality Assurance International, a federally recognized independent third-party certification program.

Organic food sales were are the Billions (see Table1) and organic farms and farming acreage are on the rise (see Table2).

2005 2006 2008 (Projected)

Organic Food Sales $13.8 Billion $17 Billion

Organic Food Sales...