Anybody remember Whole Foods Market?
US-based upscale grocery chain Whole Foods Market made great waves ahead of its landing in the UK but since touching down two years ago it has failed to even rock the boat of UK food retailing.
By Glynn Davis, City Editor.
Such has been the poor trading at its London outpost that when combined with the four small former Fresh & Wild stores that it bought that it has only managed to deliver a pre-tax operating loss of $18.4 million. With these numbers it is not surprising that no more larger stores have been added despite much speculation. Despite this backdrop the company continues to remain commited to the UK division and has sent over one of its US senior managers to try to improve trading. Sending the big guns in could possibly be considered the last throw of the dice before a potential pull-out but with the company’s lease commitments on its extensive London store one suspects Whole Foods is going nowhere.
