Whole Foods Market has reported on a strong set of results for the third quarter of 2009, with sales increasing 2 per cent to US$1.9bn and income from operations up 23 per cent to US$78.9m.
Despite the strong figures, comparable store sales dropped 2.5 per cent against a 2.6 per cent increase in the third quarter of 2008, with identical store sales down 3.8 per cent versus a 1.9 per cent increase last year.
Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) jumped 22 per cent to US$148.2m, with the group reporting free cash flow of US$92.7m.
'We are very pleased with our third-quarter top-line and bottom-line results,' said Whole Foods chairman, CEO and co-founder John Mackey. 'We saw our first sequential improvement in comparable store and identical store sales trends in six quarters, driven by both average transaction count and basket size trends.
'We believe we are continuing to strike the right balance between sales and gross margin while exhibiting strong cost control, producing a 23 per cent increase in income from operations,' he added. 'We also generated US$93m of free cash flow, ending the quarter with US$448m in total cash and US$335m available on our credit line.'
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