WHOLE FOODS REPLACING 3 UNITS WITH TWO LARGER SUPERMARKETS

AUSTIN, Texas -- Whole Foods Market here will replace all three existing stores in this market with two 30,000-square-foot stores based on its natural-foods supermarket prototype.

corporate offices above the store.

Whole Foods' original 12,500-square-foot store and a store in south Austin will be closed in the first quarter next year when the new downtown store opens, Whole Foods said.

The store in northwest Austin is expected to open later in fiscal 1995, at which time the third store will be closed. The company's current fiscal year ends Sept. 25, 1994.

Whole Foods also said it is developing stores in Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago and Tustin, Calif., all four of which should open sometime in fiscal 1995.

The California unit, in Orange County, will be the first new Mrs. Gooch's format to open since Whole Foods acquired Mrs. Gooch's last September. Mrs. Gooch's operates seven stores in southern California.

In Philadelphia and Boston, the new Whole Foods units will operate under the Bread & Circus banner. The Philadelphia store marks Bread & Circus' first move out of the Boston area.

The Chicago store will be a Whole Foods unit.

The company's store-development plans were disclosed in its first-quarter financial report.

Whole Foods, which operates 32 stores in six regions, said net income rose 43.3% to $2.5 million in the first quarter ended Jan. 16, a record. Net income was $1.7 million in last year's first quarter.

Sales in the 16-week quarter totaled $116.5 million, an increase of 31.3% compared with $88.7 million in the year-ago quarter.