...Fall 2014 Accounting 501 Term Paper Whole Foods Market, Inc. Financial Analysis Whole Foods Market, Inc. Based in Texas December 2014 Executive Summary Whole Foods Market, Inc. has been in operation for over 30 years, and has since demonstrated a very successful business model that continues to benefit all stakeholders. When the first Whole Foods Market store opened in 1980, business owners John Mackey and Walter Robb had no idea they would become the 8th largest public food and drug retailer in the U.S., nor did they know at the time that they would soon rank #232 on the Fortune 500. In 2005, the firm hit a major milestone reporting six stores averaging roughly $1 million per week. Now they have more than 50 stores averaging at least $1 million or more. In 1985, the Declaration of Interdependence was crafted by 60 team members. The document was last updated in 1988, 1992, and 1997. The piece proclaims the party’s vision of instilling a clear sense of interdependence among various stakeholders, and validating the contingency upon their efforts in communicating more often, more openly, and more compassionately. The idea behind this concept is the fact that better communication in turn equals a greater understanding, and therefore more trust. Today food retailing is more competitive than ever with an ever-growing demand for fresh, healthy foods. However, Whole Foods’ industry-leading metrics complement their ability toward innovation and display of high...
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...Project Ratio Analysis of The Kroger Co. and Whole Foods Market, Inc. TEAM Jake Eriksen (002) Brycen Goldstein (002) 16 Ross Wright (001) Nicolas Kim Omar Harb (001) (002) Kroger The Kroger Co. (referred to as Kroger) is a large grocery chain audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Kroger ended its FY 2012 on February 2, 2013, FY 2013 on February 1, 2014, and FY 2014 on January 31, 2015 (Saturday nearest January 31). From page 39, we are told that 95% of inventories in 2014 and 2013 were counted using a LIFO costing method, stating the lower of cost or market. However, Kroger’s fuel inventory levels are determined using the FIFO cost method. The company uses the Link-Chain, Dollar-Value LIFO method to calculate its LIFO charge. Also on page 39, we are told that Kroger mainly uses the straightline method for depreciation and amortization expense. Buildings and land improvements are typically depreciated over 10-40 years, store equipment are depreciated over 3-9 years, leasehold improvements are amortized over 4-25 years, manufacturing plant and distribution center equipment are depreciated over 3-15 years, and information technology assets are generally depreciated over 5 years. Net Cash Provided by Operating Activities 4500 4163 Dollars (in millions) 4000 3573 3500 2954 3000 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 0 2014 2013 Year 2 2012 Whole Foods Whole Foods Market, Inc. (referred to as Whole Foods) is another ...
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...Introduction: By 2006, Whole Foods Market had evolved into the “world’s largest retail chain of natural and organic foods supermarkets.” Their rapid growth and success is primarily due to being highly selective about what they sell, as well as being dedicated quality standards and core values. Whole Food’s stated mission statement was to “promote vitality and well-being for all individuals by offering the highest quality, least processed, most flavorful natural and naturally preserved foods available.” II. Situational Analysis a. Firm Analysis (Internal Strengths and Weaknesses) (Based on Appendix A). i. Current strategy and strategic position in industry: Whole Food’s strategy since 2002 has been to open its own large stores, 50,000 square feet and larger, rather than acquiring small chain stores ranging from 5,000- 20,000 square feet. The driving concept behind their merchandising strategy was to create and “inviting and interactive store atmosphere that turned shopping for food into a fun, pleasurable experience.” Whole Food’s wanted customers to think of the store as a “third place” outside of home and work, where they could relax as well as interact with others in a colorful environment. Financials Analysis: After reading the case and reporting the financial numbers the profit margins from year 2005 have been decreasing each year. The costs of goods sold are on the rise over the past three years and debt over the past three years...
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...Running Head: WHOLE FOODS CASE ANALYSIS 1 Whole Foods Case Analysis Thomas Edison State College WHOLE FOODS CASE ANALYSIS 2 The Whole Foods company mission is whole foods, whole people, whole planet. The Whole Foods company strategy reflects the company mission. Their whole foods mission is achieved by offering a wide variety of food and non-food items that are organic or natural. They source their products locally and usually have stricter store guidelines for the definition of “local” requiring a shorter maximum distance for traveling. “Locally grown” n.d. Their standards of quality are high and they strive to provide products that are fresh, safe and support well being. They have a list of unacceptable ingredients for food and quality standards for other products. “Quality standards” n.d. Their mission of whole people is achieved through the formation of teams at the store level. The teams manage themselves and are encouraged to make decisions about their department they are responsible for. Compensation is in part from stock options so they are invested in the profitability of the store. Fortune magazine has listed them as on the top 100 companies to work for for 13 years in a row now. Team members can go on field trips to...
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...February 17, 2014 FINALE INTRODUCTION In this finale paper of the ending of this course, I have chosen to use Whole Foods Market, Inc. as the company to evaluate and analyze. Whole Foods Market mainly has a history or trend of strong cash flow and stock position. This is a constantly prospering company. Since 2010, there has been a slew of new stores that have opened just in the Midwest and Canada. They are expanding all over the United States and have even made some deals to take over ownership of majority of the Dominick’s grocery stores that are closing in the Chicago-land area. Whole Foods Market is in the Organic and Natural Food Industry. Their main products are Organic and Natural grocery and retail items. Their main competitor is Trader Joe’s. My personal analysis of this company for an investor would be to absolutely invest into Whole Foods Market. It would be a high recommendation from my standpoint. Of course there are risks to any kind of stock or shareholding but I see way more strengths in this company, regardless of the annual statements at use here below. Whole Foods Market is prospering, growing, and just getting better each and every year. It would be an investor’s mistake to pass up the investment in such a prosperous and quickly expanding company. I have provided three different statements in this paper; the...
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...Whole Foods Market: A Strategic Analysis Adrienne Lee Richard Linowes Spring 2009 General University Honors 5/6/2009 1 WHOLE FOODS MARKET: Strategic Company Analysis EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Whole Foods Market, Inc. has long been admired as an innovative company with quality standards, a devotion to community and environmental responsiveness, a healthy growth model and highly-regarded employment practices. However, the company has faced recent difficulties as a result of the economic recession, increasing competition, and complications from acquisitions. To revitalize the company from historical lows in its toughest year in history, Whole Foods Market must reassess its costs, refocus its expansion strategies, and promote its brand to compete for the diminishing consumer spending dollar. During the changes in strategic initiatives, it is also important for the company to keep Whole Foods Market’s mission and its brand value intact. The chain is known for its high standards, quality, and ethical practices; this image is at stake when any changes in brand or reputation are made. It is of utmost importance to balance the positioning in order to increase awareness and sales, but at the same time avoid diminishing the brand and message of the company. Without the value behind the Whole Foods brand, the company will not survive—recession or not. If Whole Foods can successfully complete these initiatives that include major restructuring while also generating public relations...
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...Marketplace Analysis of Whole Foods Charles Griffith University of St. Mary Marketing Management MGT-704 MARKETPLACE ANALYSIS OF WHOLE FOODS “With great courage, integrity, and love – we embrace our responsibility to co-create a world where each of us, our communities and our planet can flourish. All while celebrating the sheer love and joy of food” (Whole Foods, 2015). This is Whole Food’s “higher purpose statement”. This statement expresses and delivers what Whole Foods, as an organization, believes and what must be apparent to the consumer. As an organization founded with the drive to bring the freshest and most natural products to consumers, Whole Foods must maintain alignment with that core philosophy. Created in response to the lack of organic and natural options of the traditional grocery stores and chains Whole Foods has grown from its origins in a three story house in Austin to the multi-billion dollar enterprise it is today without sacrificing this core value (Harrison, 2014). This is very important: The continued development and growth of Whole Foods must maintain this core philosophy. The platform for value creation is rooted in market share growth and consistent and well defined organizational philosophy (Deshpande, R. & Webster, F. 1989). Keeping Whole Food’s core philosophy in mind, strategy for growth of the business and recapturing of market share are the primary goals of this analysis. The supermarket and “other grocery” markets within the United...
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...Whole Foods Market Business Environment MGT/541 March 19, 2012 Jeannette Singh Whole Foods Market Business Environment Whole Foods Market specializes in offering organic and natural food and product across North America, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Currently ranked 273 in Fortune 500 companies would appear to be a good company to invest in. Prior to investing, the duties of a mutual fund manager are to examine the business environment of a potential investment. The documents that need examining are the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow sheets. This analysis will aid in the determination of the financial health of Whole Foods Market. A comparison of Whole Foods Market with two competitors—United Natural Foods and Hain Celestial Group—will be completed. Technology is important within a business environment; therefore, the strength or weakness that Whole Foods Market has will also be discussed along with globalization. The paper will conclude with a benchmarking analysis of Whole Foods Market against United Natural Foods and Hain Celestial Group. Financial Health Every public company trading on the New York Stock Exchange is required to file quarterly and annual statements regarding financial records. To analyze the financial health of Whole Foods Market as a potential investor, I could access the United States Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing dated January 15, 2012. The key factors of a financial statement according to William...
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...of Business Prairie View A&M University Group Case Study: Whole Foods Market Jamal Bacon, Briana Bedford, Alexis Castleberry, Jordon Powell Strategic profile & case analysis purpose Whole foods was the world’s number one leading retailer of natural and organic foods. It was founded by John Mackey when he started with one store, but it has now grown to the nation’s leading food chain. The purpose of this business case study is to explore the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats facing Whole Foods. In 2005 whole foods had 172 stores in North America and the United Kingdom. Whole Foods Market was created in 1979 when John Mackey partnered with Craig Weller and Mark Skiles. The new company was established in Austin, Texas, in 1980, and consisted of a natural food market with a staff of 19 members. The success of Whole Foods was attributed largely through mergers, acquisitions, and several new store openings. In the United States, Whole Foods is considered the largest natural food supermarket. Whole Foods Markets is driven by its mission, “the company is highly selective about what they sell, dedicated to stringent quality standards, and committed to sustainable agriculture. They believe 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” (Hunger and Wheelen pg.28-2). Whole Food’s objectives consisted of targeting their locations where there...
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...WHOLE FOODS MARKET IN 2008: VISION, CORE VALUES AND STRATEGY CASE STUDY [pic] PRESENTED BY: What are the chief elements of the strategy that Whole Foods Market is pursuing? Brief Background Whole Foods Market was founded in 1980 as a local supermarket and has now become world’s largest retail chain of natural and organic foods supermarkets. Whole Foods offers the highest quality, least processed, most flavorful and naturally preserved foods available. Whole foods market has its own private label brands of organics. Whole Foods Market aims to sell the highest quality natural and organic products, satisfy and delight its customers and team members, create wealth through profits and growth and care about communities and environment. Current Strategy and possible growth The core value of Whole Foods was “Whole Foods, Whole People, Whole Plant.” They cared about their foods, their staff, their customers as well as the environment, so they came up with many strategies, which are listed as follow: I. Expanded the company by opening new stores and acquiring attractive candidates. Because of the growth need of the company, acquisition was a good way to roll. The biggest acquisition for Whole Foods was the purchase of its biggest competitor, Wild Oats Market, in 2007. This gave Whole Foods an easy way to enter into new big cities and even new states, but meanwhile costs of capital were large too. According to the failure...
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...1. External analysis: Describe industry/market dynamics in terms of customers, competitors, potential entrants, product/service substitutes, and suppliers. Customers Whole Foods is known for its strict standard on its food quality as well as its personal care products. Also, it has a commitment to provide natural and organic products to its customers in order to show that Whole Foods cares about its customers, community, and the environment. They have the well designed website that explains their concepts very well. Their customers are mainly who agree with Whole Foods’s concepts and are willing to pay more for the organic products there to avoid the genetically modified food. All the age groups of customers can be found in the Whole Foods, but they have a significant increasing number of young adults customers. In addition, Whole Foods is supported by various industries such as fitness centers, health insurance companies and nutritionists. Competitors The main competitors of Whole Foods are Kroger, Sprouts, Trader Joe’s and many other local grocery stores that also sell organic foods. Buyer power strongly impacts Whole Foods because customers can easily shift to other providers of organic and natural foods. “Supermarket chain Kroger is expected to surpass Whole Foods as the nation's top seller of organic food, while Trader Joe's sells twice as much per square foot” (Business Insider). It is apparently that Whole Foods is not doing enough for its expensiveness so that...
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...Whole Foods Market Strategic Management Table of Contents Introduction…………………………………………………………………….…….p. 3 Trends in the Organic Foods and the Impact on Whole Foods…………………........p. 3 Application of Porter’s 5 Forces Model………..…………………………….............p. 4 Most Significant Environmental Threat and Whole Foods Combat ………………...p. 6 SWOT Analysis….…………………………………………..………………........…p. 7 Sustaining Competitive Advantage...…………………………………...….………..p. 8 Summary….………………………………………………………….………..…….p. 8 References.…………………………………………………………..……………....p. 10 Whole Foods Market Introduction John Mackey cofounder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) founded Whole Foods in 1980 with the purpose of providing organic foods to the grocery shopping public. This started a movement over the next 30 years that has brought organic foods to the common shoppers in many markets around the U.S. that had only been previously serviced by smaller health food stores or by their local grocery chain. The success of Whole Foods moving forward will be how they can succeed and maintain their profitability when unemployment remains high and Americans have less disposable income. This essay will look at several factors of Whole Foods, including latest trends, the competitive environment in the grocery industry, environmental threats, SWOT analysis of the business operations and strengths that must be leveraged to maintain a competitive advantage. Trends in the Organic Foods...
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...Brandy Horejs MGMT 634 Week 2 Assignment 1. What are the chief elements of the strategy that Whole Foods Market is pursuing? Since going public in 1991, Whole Foods’ growth strategy has been to expand via a combination of opening its own new stores and acquiring small, owner-managed chains that have capable personnel and are located in desirable markets. Since one of its core values was to satisfy and delight customers, Whole Foods Market empowered team members to do whatever it took to meet or exceed customer expectations on every shopping trip. Competent, knowledgeable, and friendly service is a hallmark of shopping at a Whole Foods Market. Teams were also empowered to make many decisions at the store level pertaining to merchandising, departmental operations, and efforts to please customers. Whole Foods Market seeks to offer the highest quality, least processed, most flavorful and naturally preserved foods available. 2. Is the strategy well matched to recent developments and conditions in the natural and organic foods segment of the food retailing industry? Yes, their strategy is well matched to recent developments and conditions in the natural and organic foods segment of the food retailing industry. With consumer demand for organic foods growing at close to 20 percent annually, and mounting consumer enthusiasm for organic products, Whole Foods Market made sure that they offered a vast array of products to make their store a one stop shopping experience for their...
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...Financial Analysis Rayshon Harris Institution of Learning Financial Analysis Company Overview Business (enterprise) possesses all the signs of the goods and can be an object of purchase and sale. However, it is a specific type of goods, the features of which cause principles, approaches, and methods of its estimation. Business as the goods has a number of features. Firstly, these are the investment goods, which are performing for the purpose of a return in the future. The costs and reception of the incomes are united in time. The size of the expected profit is unknown; it has a likelihood character, and, therefore, the investor should consider the risks of a possible failure. Secondly, business is a system, but it can be on sale as both a whole system, its separate subsystems, and even its elements. Actually, not business, but its separate components become goods, and the estimation determines a market value for separate assets. Thirdly, the requirement for business as the goods depends on the processes occurring in business and its external environment. In fact, on the one hand, instability in economy leads to the instability in business; on the other hand, its instability leads to the further increase of instability in the whole economy. One more feature of business as the goods is the requirement for an adjustment of business, estimation process, and the necessity to consider the quality of a business management at business valuation. ...
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...Brochure More information from http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/466097/ UK Supermarket Analysis (2007-2010) Description: This report on “UK Supermarket Analysis (2007-2010)" gives an opportunity to the readers to navigate through the supermarket landscape in UK. Throwing light on all aspects of the supermarket industry in UK, this report provides the readers with detailed analysis of factors that are propelling the industry, plus the opportunities and challenges in the market. The report includes PEST Analysis of the industry. This report also helps the investors to identify the different consumer classes served by different supermarkets in UK. Key Findings - Online retail will emerge as an important mode of selling. - Each Supermarket in UK has its own consumer class. - Top four Supermarkets hold major market share (almost 75%) in UK. - Increasing buying power of retailer remains the major driver for the industry. Key Issues and Facts Analysed The research report also addresses the issues and facts that are critical to the success of UK retail industry in particular. - Overview of current market trends. - Profile discussion (their respective consumer class, and store formats, etc) of key players in this sector. - Analysis of various challenges and opportunities existing in the industry. - What is the market size and scope of retail in UK? - What and where are the growth prospects and issues related to the industry? - What are the factors driving growth in this sector...
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