Whole Foods

Whole Foods Market Inc. (Austin, Texas) reported a 20 percent increase in sales for its second quarter ended April 10, 2005.

The specialty foods retailer said the increase was driven by 13 percent weighted average year-over-year square footage growth and comparable store sales growth of 11.6 percent.

Sales in identical stores (excluding three relocated stores and two major store expansions) increased 10.2 percent for the quarter. Net income increased 22 percent.

In the quarter, the company’s 69 stores over eight years old (with an average size of 28,000 square feet) enjoyed same-store sales gains of 9.7 percent; its 30 stores between five and eight years old (average size: 32,000 square feet), had an 8.1 percent gain; its 42 stores between two and five years old (average size: 32,000 square feet) gained 12.8 percent; and its 15 newest stores, less than two years old (average size: 40,000 square feet) gained 24.8 percent.

“This quarter we produced an 11.6 percent comparable store sales increase, which was on top of our record-breaking 17.1 percent comparable store sales increase in the second quarter last year,” said chairman, ceo and co-founder John Mackey. “We are very pleased with our performance year to date, particularly in light of our difficult year-over- year comparisons. Due to our strong sales growth, we are raising our comparable store sales guidance for the year to a range of 9 percent to 11 percent from 8 percent to 10 percent. We continue to expect diluted earnings per share growth to be lower than sales growth primarily due to the anticipated acceleration in new store openings.”

In the second quarter, the company opened two new stores, in Swampscott, Mass., and New York, and relocated two stores, in Austin, Texas, and Thousand Oaks, Calif., ending the quarter with 168 stores totaling approximately 5.4 million square feet. The company also opened its third store in Canada and xpects to open two additional stores during the third quarter, including one relocation.

It has also signed seven new store leases, in San Francisco, Naples, Fla., Portland, Maine, West Orange, N.J., Nashville, Tenn., Milwaukee and Vancouver, B.C. In all, it has 59 stores in development as of May 4, 2005. A year ago, it had 46 stores in development. And the average size has increased 11 percent in a year, to 51,300 square feet.