The Rocky Mountain News reports that Whole Foods co-COO Walter Robb has informed a Goldman Sachs retailing conference that “Whole Foods will close fewer stores than it originally had planned after buying Boulder-based Wild Oats,” and that it plans to identify the units it will close by the end of the month.
The $565 million acquisition, which was opposed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on competitive grounds but allowed to go forward by the courts, increased Whole Foods 307-unit fleet by 110 stores.
"They gave us the keys and they left town," Robb said of Wild Oats management, according to the News. "We are well down the road with this in terms of cultural integration."
The $565 million acquisition, which was opposed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on competitive grounds but allowed to go forward by the courts, increased Whole Foods 307-unit fleet by 110 stores.
"They gave us the keys and they left town," Robb said of Wild Oats management, according to the News. "We are well down the road with this in terms of cultural integration."
- KC's View:
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Maybe Robb didn’t mean it that way, but that didn’t sound to me exactly like a ringing endorsement of the folks who used to run Wild Oats.
I wonder how that sounds to the folks still working there.
