Green retailer Whole Foods wants to buy more from India

Whole Foods Market, the world’s largest retailer of natural and organic foods, is looking to increase its sourcing from India, from where it currently buys tea, spices, oil and salt.

Whole Foods Market, the world’s largest retailer of natural and organic foods, is looking to increase its sourcing from India, from where it currently buys tea, spices, oil and salt.

“We will be open to bring more things from India to our stores across the US, UK and Canada,” Walter Robb, co-chief executive officer of the Austin, Texas-based supermarket chain, told HT in an interview. Robb is in India to attend the HT Leadership Summit.

His Nasdaq-listed company, which has nearly $13 billion in annual sales and 85,000 employees, currently sources food items from 80 countries from around 100,000 suppliers. The company sells food items in its “original and natural” state to customers through its 370 retail stores across the US, the UK and Canada.

A year after being founded in 1980, the whole of the company’s inventory was wiped out in a flood at Austin, but it was back in action within a month, aided by customers, staff and other stakeholders. It went public in 1992.

The company, which calls itself “mission-driven”, is also looking at market prospects in other countries, Robb said.

With a strong cash balance of $1.4 billion, the zero debt company is also “looking at some acquisitions,” Robb added.

The company plans to add 75 new stores over the next two years in its existing markets. The average size of a Whole Foods store is around 40,000 square feet.