Whole Foods swings to profit in UK but warns of future 'uncertainties'

The grocer’s British business posted a £1.3m operating profit for the 12 months ending September 27, 2015 following a £7.4m loss the previous year.

The figures were boosted by a 12.5% jump in sales to £114.1m and an 8.7% uplift in like-for-likes across its nine stores.

Whole Foods also kept tighter control of administrative expenses during the year, which were reduced from £48.46m to £47.15m, accounting for 40.2% of sales.

The premium grocer said the decrease was “driven by labour efficiencies” and “improvements in staff costs.”

However Whole Foods warned that its future growth depended on its ability to continue growing like-for-like sales and said profits may be “materially impacted by fluctuations in identical store sales.”

In documents filed at Companies House, the retailer said its growth strategy to date had included opening new stores, but added: “There can be no assurance that we will continue to grow through new store openings.

“We may not be able to timely open new stores or operate them successfully.

“We may not be able to adapt our distribution, management information and other operating systems to adequately supply products to new stores at competitive prices so that we can operate the stores in a successful and profitable manner.”