London’s UK flagship store of world’s largest retailer of organic food, Whole Foods Market, is suffering losses.

In its first quarter report, Whole Food Market’s High Street Kensington store accounted for 50% of its 2% fall in return on investment in less than 2 years of its commencement of sales. Whole Foods veteran, Jeff Turnas, is being posted as regional president of the UK to tide over the crisis. The food retailer rebranded four of its Fresh & Wild stores this month to the Whole Foods Fascia.

According to John Mackey, Chairman, Whole Foods, the operating cash flow on a currency-adjusted basis in the UK, has improved to minus $1.7m in the current year first quarter compared to minus $3.3m during same period last year. He expressed confidence in dedicated and focussed leadership for driving further improvement in financial performance leading to strong ROI in the long run. He added that there wass great potential for growth in the UK and management was initiating proactive actions to improve operations.

In spite of John Mackey’s confident comments, the financial data points out that Whole Foods’ London store has struggled badly since its opening in June 2007 and has suffered from customers’ reluctance in buying at expensive prices and lack of adequate parking facilities. The launch occurred during severe credit crunch when sales of organic food had started tapering off.

Whole Food is actively searching for new sites in the UK and would open stores at new locations very soon.

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