Whole Foods buys rival Wild Oats

by Teresa Gubbins

Whole Foods Market announced on Wednesday that it will buy Wild Oats Markets, its biggest competitor, for $565 million.

Whole Foods founder and CEO John Mackey made the overture after spotting a possible opening when Wild Oats' chief executive and chief financial officer Perry Odak left last year and was replaced by interim CEO Gregory Mays.

Wild Oats, which is based in Boulder, Colo., operates stores under a quartet of banners: Wild Oats Marketplace, Henry's Farmers Market, Sun Harvest, and Capers Community Market, all of which were independent chains before being acquired by Wild Oats.

Wild Oats' stores are smaller than Whole Foods, and so is the reach of the chain: approximately 110 stores in 24 states versus Whole Foods, which has 193 stores in the United States, Canada, and Britain.

Wild Oats announced recently that it would close eight stores. But as recently as January, it was also contemplating opening a store in the Dallas area. Wild Oats did open a store in Dallas in 1998, on Mockingbird at Central (I attended the opening party where every "natural-foods" person came crawling out of the woodwork, looking for a new ride on the gravy train); but sadly, the underdog chain always seemed poorly managed, although stock analysts credit Odak with steering it through a five-year turnaround.