Whole Foods Closes More Wild Oats Stores

05/10/07 Whole Foods Market, Inc., plans to close nine of the 74 Wild Oats and Capers banner stores, which it acquired in August. Another eight stores will be allocated to existing Whole Foods Market sites in development.

Whole Foods also said that it has completed the sale of all 35 Henry's Farmers Markets and Sun Harvest Markets stores, as well as a related distribution center in Riverside, California to a wholly owned subsidiary of Los Angeles-based food retailer Smart & Final Inc.

Whole Foods received approximately US$166 million for the net assets of these stores, consisting mainly of leases, fixed assets, and inventory. All of the Henry's stores are in California, and all of the Sun Harvest stores are in Texas. Whole Foods acquired the stores as part of the Wild Oats deal.

Additionally, Whole Foods and Smart & Final have entered into a support agreement, according to which Whole Foods will continue to provide certain products and services for the 35 stores for up to two years. Whole Foods expects that the revenue associated with the agreement will approximately equal its incremental cost of providing the support.

Whole Foods operates 276 stores in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.