OxBowBusiness: Whole Foods

13 January 2007

Whole Foods

I know that this Blog is probably not being read by anyone in the USA and
not being read by anyone who uses the Whole Foods chain of shops in the USA (me neither!) and their products but I thought you would be interested in
the information anyway.

Interestingly for a company such as this, I was attracted to the statement
on the cover of their 2005 annual report:

Profits are a result of doing a lot of things right

At times I lead seminars that include discussions of Mission Statements. I
like really naff mission statements meaningless; written in the terms of a
modern poem; and absolutely vacuous. I like simple ones and this is where
Whole Foods comes in: their mission statement is

Whole Foods, Whole People, Whole Planet

I got that from http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/company/declaration.html

Whole Foods says, "Our motto ... emphasizes that our vision reaches far
beyond just being a food retailer. Our success in fulfilling our vision is
measured by customer satisfaction, Team Member excellence and happiness,
return on capital investment, improvement in the state of the environment,
and local and larger community support"

Is this what the mission statement says to you?

They go on to make these headline statements on their statement:

We Sell the Highest Quality Natural and Organic Products Available
We Satisfy and Delight Our Customers
We Support Team Member Excellence and Happiness
We Create Wealth Through Profits and Growth
We Support Our Communities and Encourage Local Involvement
We Promote Environmental Stewardship
Balance and Integration

Go to their page (as above) and see the details of all of these headlines.

Now let me tell you that Whole Foods had sales of US$5.6 billion in the
financial year 2006 and you can download their last five years' results:
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com//investor/fiveyeardata.pdf. Whole Foods'
operating profit margin was 5.68% for 2006 and its net profit margin is
3.63%. Whole Foods' EPS was US$2.10 for 2005 and US$1.46 for 2006 and its
DPS for the same period was US$1.98 for 2005 and US$1.41 and for 2005 its
return on shareholders' funds was 9.98%

I also like the look of their latest annual report and accounts (2005), at
http://www.shareholder.com/visitors/dynamicdoc/document.cfm?CompanyID=WFMI&d
ocumentID=1246&PIN=&resizeThree=no&Scale=100&Keyword=type%20keyword%20here&P
age=2 For anyone from the UK please bear in mind that this is US based
report and US financial reporting standards are radically different from UK
and International standards.

There you are, take a look at the stuff and see what you think about the
business.

There is a more complete version with graphics of my thoughts on this in a PDF file, click here to open or download.

Duncan Williamson
13th January 2007