Whole Foods Market

Whole Foods Market has announced that its net income increased by 33 per cent to US$89.9m for the second quarter of the year, with earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) up 14 per cent year-on-year to US$208.3m.

Sales for the quarterly period jumped 12 per cent to hit US$2.4bn, with comparable and identical store sales increasing by 7.8 per cent.

'These are the strongest overall results we have reported in the past five years,' said John Mackey, co-founder and co-CEO of Whole Foods Market. Our solid execution in generating consistent cash flow, and with our long-term debt now fully repaid, we are considering other uses for our growing cash balance, including accelerating our growth, raising our dividend and repurchasing stock.

'We are very proud of our balance sheet and that, despite a much tougher year-ago comparison, we are reporting our sixth consecutive quarter of accelerating two-identical store sales growth,' he added. 'Based on our results for the quarter, we have raised our earnings outlook by US$0.10 for the year.'