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| Source: | LOHAS Weekly Newsletter |
| Published: | Sunday, November 01, 1998 |
WFMI’s stock spoke louder than words on the day that Roy’s resignation was announced. It fell $3.50 to $36.50/share, losing approximately $80 million of its market cap. “Peter Roy was the $80 million man in Wall Street’s eyes,” Matt Patsky, managing director of Adams, Harkness & Hill in Boston told Natural Business in October.
“Peter was the voice of Whole Foods to The Street and will be missed,” says one industry analyst. “He clearly understands the industry, and he knows the way Wall Street thinks.”
According to Mackey, this transition is a challenge his company is ready to handle. “I’m not sure it is ‘the end of an era’ for us,” Mackey says. “Peter has had the title of president in part because of his awesome communications skills with Wall Street, and these skills and his style and industry networking will be greatly missed. Yet Chris has been our ‘go-to’ guy and number-two man for years now. Assuming the title of president for Chris is not that much of a transition for us.”
Roy, a 24-year industry veteran who began his career by bagging groceries for Whole Foods Company in New Orleans in 1975 (later bought by WFMI), says he is resigning for personal reasons. “I’ve been reflecting on this [decision] for over a year,” Roy says. “I was looking for the right time to leave, and now is that time. Fresh Fields is integrated, and Chris is ready to take the step up.” Roy will continue to be involved in WFMI as a member of its board of directors (see related story, pg. 6).
Hitt, who will continue to be based on the East Coast as president of Whole Foods, says that the responsibilities of the presidency have been reallocated based on the expertise of the management team, which includes Mackey, Hitt, COO Jim Sud and CFO Glenda Flanagan. Hitt will oversee the Mid-Atlantic, Northeast, FL and Midwest regions and will be in charge of construction. Sud will oversee the West Coat and Southwest regions, the operations of Amrion and Allegro, and real estate. Mackey will have direct responsibility for marketing and purchasing. The team will share responsibility for Wall Street/investor relations.
“Whole Foods’ decision to have more members of the management team talk to The Street from now on may have been influenced by the large impact that Roy had,” says one analyst.
Based on WFMI’s 1998 Future Search discussion—an internal vision and planning meeting that it holds every five years—the company plans to have 200 stores and sales of $4.5 billion by 2003.
“We have confidence that we can deliver on this vision,” Hitt says. “In 1988 we predicted 25 stores by 1993, and in 1993 we predicted we’d have over $1 billion in sales and 100 stores by 1998. We were slightly under in number of stores [in 1998] but we were over in sales.” As president, Hitt plans to focus his energy on recruiting and retaining quality employees in a market with low unemployment and where natural foods retailing is not considered a career by job seekers; expanding WFMI’s information systems to support its 200-store goal; and improving quality and cost control.
Hitt, who came on board at Whole Foods in 1985, has served as regional president of the Southwest, Northern California, Southeast and Northeast regions, and, most recently, the Mid-Atlantic region. Prior to joining the company, Hitt served as executive director of the American Farm Foundation and as a staff member of the U.S. Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee. He received an M.Sc. degree from Harvard University in 1975. Michael Besancon, currently VP of the Southern Pacific region, will replace Hitt as president of the Mid-Atlantic region.
In related news, Don Moffit resigned, for personal reasons, his position as regional president of Whole Foods’ Southeast region, effective Nov. 1. WFMI has chosen to eliminate its Southeast region and fold one Southeast-region store into its FL region, while the rest will become part of its Mid-Atlantic region.