How Sprouts Is Winning The Natural Food Battle

As Whole Foods Market finds the market tough going, we look at how one of its key competitors is planning for stronger growth.

Exceeded expectations with Q3 performance

With Q3 sales up 18% to $903.1m, and comparable store sales up 5.8%, Sprouts Farmers Market has performed very strongly in a near zero inflation environment. This strong record of growth comes at a time when competitors, such as Whole Foods Market and the Fresh Market, are finding the trading conditions more challenging. This growth is being driven by a number of factors. Sharper pricing of fresh, a key category for the retailer, and creating a more convenient and easy shopping trip for customers has helped Sprouts to continue attracting new customers, with 75% of sales growth driven by increased footfall and 25% driven by higher basket spend.

Sprouts continues to expand, with 27 new stores opening in 2015. The retailer plans to continue opening new stores, with a strong pipeline for 2016 and ahead. Its strategy is for around 70% of this growth to be in existing markets (whilst trying to avoid cannibalisation of sales), and 30% to come from new markets.

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