Summary
Six months ago most industry experts and analysts were writing an obituary for Whole Foods. Stock dropped to $7/share and no one had anything good to say about them.
Fortunately John Mackey and his team made the adjustments needed to react to the downturn in the economy without damaging their brand and WFMI rebounded to a third quarter that propelled the stock to $29/ share.
Analysis
I believe John's comments following the third quarter results once again reflect his strong leadership. His style often irritates but he is usually out in front of in recognizing trends and challenging the status quo.
Whole Foods under his leadership has rewarded customers, employees and shareholders as well as any company in the U.S. over the last decade. Year after year of double digit growth in both sales and earnings did not occur by accident. Standards set by WFMI over 12 years ago regarding the environment, energy conservation, waste control and employee welfare are now standards for the industry.
It is well recognized that the BEST long term solution for fixing our health care crisis is for people to be proactive in managing their health. John has stepped forward with concrete programs to address health maintenance that in all likelihood will be followed by many corporations in the next 2-3 years.
It is really sad that the biggest take-away from his comments is the word "junk."
Kudos to John for once again taking a stand and committing his organization to dealing head-on with one of our toughest social issues.
Roger Davidson consults with leading institutions through GLG
Analyses are solely the work of the authors and have not been edited or endorsed by GLG.
