Whole Foods income up in Q3

Austin, Texas Whole Foods Market on Tuesday reported fiscal third-quarter net income rose to $34.97 million, up from $33.92 million a year ago.

Sales for the quarter, ended July 5, 2009, gained 2% to $1.9 billion. Same-store sales decreased 2.5% versus a 2.6% increase in the prior year. Identical store sales, excluding nine relocations and two major expansions, decreased 3.8% versus a 1.9% increase in the prior year.

"We are very pleased with our third quarter top-line and bottom-line results. We saw our first sequential improvement in comparable store and identical store sales trends in six quarters driven by both average transaction count and basket size trends," said John Mackey, chairman, CEO, and co-founder of Whole Foods Market. "We believe we are continuing to strike the right balance between sales and gross margin while exhibiting strong cost control, producing a 23% increase in income from operations.”

Whole Foods opened four stores in the third quarter, three of which were relocations. So far in the fourth quarter, it has opened one store, in Capitola, Calif., with plans to open two additional locations during the quarter. It currently has 282 stores totaling 10.4 million sq. ft.