Whole Foods to Sell Two Wild Oats Stores

WASHINGTON — Whole Foods Market has found buyers for two of the former Wild Oats stores it must divest by order of the Federal Trade Commission, according to a filing by the FTC here.

The two stores — one in Kansas City, Mo., and the other in Boulder, Colo. — are the first sales agreements to be announced among the 32 stores that the FTC last year said must be divested to satisfy antitrust regulations following the 2007 merger of Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods and Boulder-based Wild Oats.

The Food Partners, which advises the industry on mergers and acquisitions, was named the divestiture trustee. According to the filing, the former Wild Oats store at 4301 Main Street in Kansas City will be sold to Healthy Investments LLC, and the former Wild Oats store at 1651 Broadway in Boulder will be sold to A-M Holdings LLC. Terms of the sales were not disclosed.

According to the Kansas City Business Journal, the Kansas City store will be rebannered as KC Organics and will offer organics, nutritional supplements and health-focused food items. The principals of Healthy Investments are Paul and David Emig. Paul Emig previously worked in sales positions for U.S. Foodservice, Heartland Food Products and Nutraceutical Corp.

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