AUSTIN, Texas — Whole Foods Market here led all food retailer and wholesaler stocks tracked by SN in the first half of 2012 with a gain of 37.69%, continuing a three-year-plus run of industry-leading gains.
It was followed closely by its primary supplier, natural and organic specialist United Natural Foods Inc., whose shares grew 37.12%, and its smaller, high-end retail rival, The Fresh Market, which saw a 34.41% gain in share price in the first half. Whole Foods ended June with a share price of $95.32, UNFI closed at $54.86 and The Fresh Market at $53.63.
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“Both Whole Foods and The Fresh Market are targeting a consumer base that is less impacted by the economic headwinds out there,” said Chuck Cerankosky, an analyst at Northcoast Research, Cleveland, referring the high-end demographic of the two chains’ customer base.
Most of the traditional supermarket operators saw their shares decline through the first six months of the year, with Minneapolis-based Supervalu at the bottom of the SN Index, losing 34.18% of its share price, to close at $5.18. Cincinnati-based Kroger Co. was off 3.29% to close at $23.19, and Pleasanton, Calif.-based Safeway lost 12.23% of its share value, to $18.15. Buoyed by double-digit gains at some large retailers, however — including Wal-Mart Stores, Target Corp. and Coscto Wholesale — overall the SN Index was up 13.25% through June, vs. gains of 5.42% for the Dow Jones Index and 8.31% for the S&P 500 Index.
The data are provided by Data Network, Huntington, N.Y.