Monday Business Roundup
New Twist in “Whole Oats” Saga
By Richard Martin, 6-25-07
The Whole Foods–Wild Oats merger saga took another unusual turn last week when Walter Robb, Whole Foods’ co-president and chief operating officer, posted a blistering message on his blog accusing federal regulators of “not doing their homework” and questioning “what world they are living in.”
Citing antitrust concerns, the Federal Trade Commission has asked a judge in Washington D.C. to block the proposed $670 million deal between Whole Foods, the nation’s largest natural-foods grocer, and its slightly smaller Boulder-based rival Wild Oats. Among other things, the Commission has publicly released emails from Robb to the Whole Foods board acknowledging that the purpose of the merger is to avoid “nasty price wars” and to “eliminate forever” the chance of a mega-grocery chain like Safeway buying Wild Oats.
The merger has local ramifications not only for the fate of Wild Oats’ corporate headquarters in Boulder, but for that of the planned flagship store at Twenty Ninth Street mall, which is on hold pending the outcome.
Analysts tended to view Robb’s strategy of publicly criticizing the Commission with skepticism, saying he ought to save it for the judge. A hearing in the case is scheduled for July 31, and a ruling is expected shortly thereafter.
In other business news:
-- Local guitar, banjo, and lute players, fear not: reports of the demise of Robb’s Music store, the Canyon Blvd. institution, have been wildly exaggerated. Robb Candler indeed sold the store last week, but the new owner, real estate entrepreneur Seth Goodman, plans to keep running the store (maybe in a new location) under its current name. And Candler himself plans to hang around indefinitely, giving guitar lessons and helping out at the register.
-- Now in its 18th year, the annual Fort Collins Brewfest has helped solidify the northern Colorado town’s status as the craft-ale capital of the U.S. But local merchants are not thrilled at the prospect of some 30,000 festival-goers quaffing ale in Old Town and wreaking general havoc. Some of the gentler terms applied to the event, which wrapped up last night, are “fiasco” and “a war zone.”
-- You may be wearing jeans from the Gap or DKNY or, God forbid, Gloria Vanderbilt, but real cowboys wear only one brand: Wrangler. Wrangler has dominated the working-cowpoke denim market for generations, and now it’s moving upscale, into the fashion arena: in his spring collection hot designer Marc Jacobs introduced a line of high-end denim in collaboration with Wrangler.
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