Whole Foods Posts Q1 Profit Gains

AUSTIN, Texas — Whole Foods Market here on Tuesday said both sales and profits were up in the fiscal first quarter as the company said it tried to strike the right balance between pricing aggressively and maintaining margins.

Net income in the 16-week quarter, which ended Jan. 17, was up about 71%, to $55.2 million, on a 7% gain in sales, to $2.64 billion, vs. year-ago results. Comparable-store sales were up 3.2%, excluding the effect of foreign currency exchange rates, and have been up 6.6% in the first weeks of the second quarter.

"Early last year, we made the shift from being fairly reactionary on pricing to being much more strategic. We have seen this strategy successfully play out over the last several quarters, as we have produced strong year-over-year improvement in gross margin and comparable-store sales growth," said John Mackey, chief executive officer, in a prepared statement.

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