Running head: WHOLE FOOD Whole Food April 21, 2009 Whole Food The Companys History and Growth Whole Food Company is the leading retailer in the industry, offering its customers a wide range of natural and organic food products. The company operates 172 stores in North America and the United Kingdom. The Safer Way natural grocery store was opened in 1978 by the cofounder and current president of Whole Food, John Mackey. The first store was quite small in size, with a limited selection of products, offering customers mostly vegetarian food. Soon after the first stores successful launch, Mackey, Craig Weller and Mark Skiles (the founders of Clarksville Natural Grocery) made a joint venture to create the Whole Foods Market (Austin, Texas, 1980).
Nowadays the company operates a chain of supermarkets along with several subsidiaries, Allegro Coffee Company (acquired in 1997) the Whole Food Markets coffee roasting and distribution center, Pigeon Cove (known as M & S until 1990 and purchased in 1996) the companys seafood-processing facility, Produce Field Inspection Office and Select Fish, acquired by the company in 2003.
In addition, the Whole Foods Market has 8 distribution centers, 7 regional bake houses, and 4 commissaries. The company experienced years of rapid growth mainly through a strategy of mergers and acquisitions. Nowadays, the Whole Foods Market is the largest natural food supermarket in the U.S. with 32,000 employees working in 172 stores in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. (Whole Foods Market Expands into UK), however, due to recent changes in the market and more competitive industry landscape, the companys owners acknowledge the importance of introducing changes in the Whole Foods Markets operation to retain competitive advantage in the market and to meet its aggressive growth targets (Armstrong, 2007).
The Essay on Whole Foods Market, Inc.
... stores in the US, Canada and the UK, and employs more than 72,700 employees. Whole Foods Market is one of the largest natural ... there’s very little emphasis in reaching internationally. Furthermore, the company’s store fronts such as distribution centers, bake-houses and grocers ... customers. Each customer is given personal attention and the company is very open to customer feedback. Delighted customers ...
The companys owner plans to reach $10 billion in revenue with over 300 stores by 2010 and retain its position as a retailer offering top quality products. SWOT Analysis As it can be noticed, the main strength within the company is that the Whole Foods Market ranks high among the businesses and customers.
It enjoys authoritative position, and has been named one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For in America by Fortune magazine for the past six years. The company positions itself as the most socially responsible business (Blumenthal, 2007).
Its president John Mackey has been named among the 30 top corporate leaders in Barrons list of the worlds best CEO. Also, according to the companys data, the Whole Foods Market is the largest retailer in the United States (Celia, 2006).
In addition, the Whole Foods Market has competitive advantages as the vast majority of competitors groceries stores have quite a limited selection of organic and natural foods, while the Whole Foods Market offers a wide range of quality products. Also, there are only two big competitors the company might be aware of. In contrast to most its competitors, the Whole Foods Market is the ultimate leader in the organic and natural food movement in the United States, offering healthy lifestyle and minimally processed products free of artificial flavors, colors, hydrogenated fats, preservatives and sweeteners (Burros, 2007).
The Whole Foods Market also consistently implements innovations and new strategies; it offers additional products and services (e.g., full service sushi, smoothie station, cafe, prepared food station, open kitchens and in store chefs), making it very difficult to competitors to offer similar service. The companys weaknesses are mostly relate to fierce competition, fragmented supply chain (that will obviously become a more important issue as the Whole Foods Market will continue its growth and expansion strategy), and eleven geographical divisions, with local supply source (Covert, 2007).
The Term Paper on Trader Joe’s Vs. Whole Foods Market
... the Whole Food’s store layout, every Whole Foods Market is unique. In the words of company executives, “Whole Foods Market does not have a standard store design. Instead, ... low prices. This allows customers to purchase unique products while guaranteeing value. This strategy also means that customers buy more because Trader ...
Relatively high price might be considered a weakness, as competitors undertake efforts to offer similar products at a cheaper price. This may lead to decrease in sales, as the customers will be likely to choose the same product at a lower price. In case this occurs, the Whole Foods Markets stock will also decrease in value. It should be also mentioned that the Whole Foods Market product line is focused on natural and organic products, therefore, the company finds it difficult to compete with the giant grocery chains such as Stop & Shop, Walmart, Big Y and others (Liew & Nils, 2002).
The store design, which is, obviously the companys strength (as the Whole Foods Markets store designs and layouts vary from store to store) (Taylor, 2007), is also the companys weakness, as while the Whole Foods Market plans to continue its expansion strategy, it might find it difficult to maintain such individual design. Also, the Whole Foods Markets advertising strategy is good but not very efficient, as it is mostly based on word of mouth recommendations. What concerns threats, it should be mentioned that one of the giant retailers, Wal-Mart has recently decided to move into the natural and organic products market. If Wal-Mart continues its strategy, it will obviously constitute a significant threat to the Whole Foods Market, as Wal-Mart is known for its aggressive predatory pricing policy (Whole Foods Market’s Growth Strategies and Future Prospects, 2007).
Another threat is that despite the Whole Foods Markets overall positive image, it is still developing a negative image in some other markets. This is mostly explained due to the Whole Foods Markets high prices, and some of its competitors has given the company a nickname Whole Paycheck. Corporate and Business Level Strategy The Whole Foods Market considers environmental-friendly practices and sustainability to be the core component of its business strategy.
The Essay on Whole food market strategy analysis
Whole Foods Market is pursuing a well-rounded and thought out strategy in order to gain success within the market. Whole Foods has a simple strategy of becoming the market leader in the natural and organic foods movement across the United States . To see if their strategies was well matched to the industry let see that industry in this period. The sales of organics and natural food reached 62 ...
The company is also focused on growth through differentiation. This strategy is being successfully implemented since its inception, and the Whole Foods Market continues to position itself as a large retailer committed to healthy organic and natural foods. Therefore, the Whole Foods Market can successfully differentiate itself from regular retailers. Also, the Whole Foods Market slogan, Whole Foods Whole People Whole Planet, embodies its business objectives and social responsibility. The companys management believes in a virtuous circle entwining the food chain, human beings, and Mother Earth: each is reliant upon the others through a beautiful and delicate symbiosis. In addition, the Whole Foods Market considers a setup of its organic grocery stores as the cornerstone of the companys success. All products are carefully researched to ensure that the company offers the best and healthiest products to the customers.
The Whole Foods Market is also known for its excellent corporate strategy, as it spends much effort in retaining its workers by offering them a rewarding corporate culture and internal promotion strategy. As it was already mentioned, the Whole Foods Market was ranked among Fortunes 100 Best Companies to Work for in America (Burros, 2007).
The Whole Foods Market places high emphasis on its strong employee-oriented corporate culture, transparency, autonomy, teamwork and empowerment. No doubt that the Whole Foods Markets corporate strategy has played a significant role in the companys success. Implementations and Recommendations Taking into consideration all information above, it can be recommended for the company to consider expanding its product line to become the one-stop-for-shopping location where the Whole Foods Markets customers can purchase all household items and products they need. By doing this, the company will gain a competitive advantage and will be able to compete with giant retailers, such as Walmart, Stop & Shop and other chains. In addition, offering customers a wider selection of products will increase average time the customers spend at the store (possibly increasing the average amount of sale).
Also, the company might consider changing its concept of individual design for its stores, adopting a uniform and standardized conception, as the variety in store layout and design may produce negative impression on customers, because they will have difficulties with finding certain products. Finally, the company might consider reexamining its advertising strategy to make it more efficient (for example, to launch more campaigns on TV, billboards, and printed media to increase brand awareness and recognition).
The Business plan on Market Segmentation, and Product Positioning
For the purpose of this assignment, I am assuming myself as the owner of a plastic molded toy company in United States that manufacturers, and distributes plastic molded toys through retailers across the country and around the world. The company is capitalizing on the strong growth in the children’s toys segment and planning to expand in an aggressive manner throughout the nation. The company ...
In addition, the Whole Foods Market might consider focusing on marketing to well-educated upper-middle class. As the company offers more expensive products, it might appeal to the people by explaining them the value of organic foods. Works Cited Armstrong, S. (2007, April 2).
Make Way for Big Organic.
New Statesman , p. 32. Blumenthal, R. (2007, March 5).
Oats: A Natural Fit for Whole Foods. Barrons , 19. Burros, M. (2007, February 28).
Is Whole Foods Straying From its Roots? The New York Times , p. F5. Celia, B. (2006, June 28).
Must an Animal Suffer So We Can Eat? New York Times , p. A.20. Covert, J.
(2007, March 7).
Whole Foods Investors Cautious. The Wall Street Journal , p. B3F. Liew, V., & Nils, C. (2002, February 8).
Whole Foods Market.
Value Line . Taylor, M. (2007, March).
Whole Foods Reaches Out to Local Growers. ColoradoBiz , p. 66.
Whole Foods Market Expands into UK. (n.d.).
Retrieved April 21, 2009, from http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=11 5420 Whole Foods Market’s Growth Strategies and Future Prospects. (2007).
Retrieved April 21, 2009, from http://www.icmrindia.org/casestudies/catalogue/Bus iness%20Strategy/BSTR244.htm.
