Whole Foods 2007 Annual Report Download - page 3

Dear Fellow Stakeholders:
I would like to begin by appreciating our Team
Members for their hard work and dedication
and our customers, suppliers, and shareholders
for their continued support. This year was
another great year of growth for our company
and stakeholders. On a 52-week to 52-week
basis, our sales increased 15% to $6.6 billion
driven by 7% comparable stores sales growth
and 18%* ending square footage growth.
Our average weekly sales for the year were
$632,000* per store, a 7% increase year over year,
translating to sales per square foot of $923*.
We opened a record 21 new stores, a significant
increase over the 13 new store openings we
averaged over the previous five years. Our new
flagship store in London set new opening-day
and first-week company sales records, and
we hope to announce additional sites in the
U.K. in the near future. We also opened our
fourth store in New York City and completely
revitalized our brand image in the Chicago
area with the opening of four new stores.
After a very lengthy and expensive legal battle with
the Federal Trade Commission, we successfully
completed our merger with Wild Oats Markets
in the fourth quarter. One of the exciting benefits
from this merger is that we gained immediate
entry into 15 new markets and five new states.
We quickly sold the Henry’s and Sun Harvest
stores and closed nine Wild Oats stores
not fit our overall brand or real estate strategy.
Over time, we plan to relocate seven smaller
stores to larger stores that we currently have in
development. As a result of the merger, each of
our 11 operating regions added stores, with our
three smallest regions benefiting the most. At
year end, we operated 276 stores totaling 9.3
million square feet with locations in 37 states and
the District of Columbia, Canada and the U.K.
We believe our merger with Wild Oats will create
long-term value for our customers, vendors and
shareholders, as well as exciting opportunities
for our Team Members. Over time, we expect
to recognize significant synergies through G&A
cost reductions, greater purchasing power and
increased utilization of our facilities. Tremendous
strides have already been made operationally and
culturally thanks to the hard work and dedication
of our Team Members, both existing and new.
While the Wild Oats stores on average are older
and smaller than our stores, we believe that
over time we will raise their sales productivity to
levels in line with our stores. Sales at the stores
are already rapidly improving as customers
are enjoying an improved shopping experience
thanks to the expanded product offerings,
particularly on the fresh foods side, as well
as price cuts on over one thousand items.
LETTER TO STAKEHOLDERS
FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS
2007 2006 2005 2004 2003
SALES (000s)$6,591,773 $5,607,376 $4,701,289 $3,864,950 $3,148,593
NUMBER OF STORES AT END OF FISCAL YEAR 276 18 6 175 163 145
AVERAGE WEEKLY SALES PER STORE $617,000 $593,000 $537,000 $482,000 $424,000
COMPARABLE STORE SALES GROWTH 7.1 % 11.0% 12.8% 14.9% 8.6%
IDENTICAL STORE SALES GROWTH 5.8% 10.3% 11.5% 14.5% 8.1%
*Excludes acquired Wild Oats stores.
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