OTTAWA, CANADA - Whole Foods' Co-CEO Walter Robb has his eye on Canada. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal's Paul Vieira, he explained that the retailer has plans to open over 80 new stores over the next two years, bringing Whole Food's Canadian store base close to 100.
“Our efforts in Canada are part of the effort to grow,” Robb explained. “We think the opportunity for fresh, healthy foods is larger now that it’s ever been. And we intend to grow as fast as we have ever grown — 40 new stores next year, 42-44 for the following year. That’s 10% square footage growth on top of 15 million square feet of retail we already have. People have said maybe we should stop our growth. I said, No, we are not going to do that because our strategy is working. There’s no reason to stop. There’s every reason to keep going.”
Whole Foods has just finished the construction of its 10th Canadian location in Ottawa. According to the Wall Street Journal, Robb was on-site for the launch of this 41,000 square foot establishment, where he shared with Vieira his company's secret to its impressive growth.
“We price to every market that we serve every time we open a store,” he shared. “We are running a number of initiatives, particularly with perishable items, in the U.S. with some success right now. I would invite you to go and compare and see what we’ve done. We have worked hard on the pricing on this store, and to be competitive in Ottawa.”
“This is a dance between price, value and quality,” Robb continued. “It’s a constant dance. We don’t all sell the same stuff. Part of our thing is to be relevant on price so that we can also bring the quality to the marketplace. We are not endeavoring to be in a race to the bottom, but a new top in quality.”
Just having posted record total sales of $3.3 billion along with EBITDA of $296 million, or 9.1% of sales, Robb's strategy certainly seems to be an effective one. I look forward to watching how Whole Foods continues to evolve and and grow its presence in North America.
