Wild Oats Markets
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Formerly called
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Wild Oats Markets, Inc. |
|---|---|
| Industry | Natural and organic food production |
| Founded | 1987 in Boulder, Colorado |
| Founders | Libby Cook Mike Gilliland |
| Headquarters | Boulder, Colorado |
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Area served
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United States |
| Owner | Yucaipa Companies |
| Parent | Hidden Villa Ranch (2010–2012) |
| Website | wildoats |
Wild Oats Marketplace is a producer of Natural and organic foods distributed through partnerships in the United States. Founded in 1987 in Boulder, Colorado, it was originally a chain of natural foods stores operating throughout the Western and Southwestern United States. In 2007, it was purchased by Whole Foods Market, Inc, but an FTC objection resulted in a reversal of the purchase. The company was bought by Luberski Inc. (d/b/a as Hidden Villa Ranch), a West Coast-based food distributor, in 2010 who then sold it to The Yucaipa Cos. in 2012.
Wild Oats currently produces and distributes various food products, including cereal, beverages, condiments, frozen and fresh items through partnerships with Walmart stores nationally and through Fresh & Easy stores in California, Nevada and Arizona.
Wild Oats was co-founded in 1986 by husband and wife team Mike Gilliland and Libby Cook in 1987 in Boulder, Colorado. Originally purchasing a convenience store, which they bought with cash advances on 17 credit cards and a second mortgage on Gilliland's mother's house, the pair decided to buy a natural foods market, Crystal Market, which they felt would prosper in health-conscious Boulder. The $300,000 purchase, completed in 1987, thrust the couple into an environment quite different from the junk-food focus of convenience stores, an environment that gradually persuaded Gilliland and Cook to become healthy eaters themselves. In that first store, Gilliland worked the counter, while Cook worked the deli. Soon, the couple had opened another natural foods store, on the south side of Boulder, called Wild Oats Community Market. As the Wild Oats business expanded, a holding company was formed, and Gilliland became chief executive officer and president, while Cook became vice-president and in-house attorney.
By the end of 1991, Gilliland and Cook had opened two other Wild Oats stores in Colorado as well as two in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Another was opened in Albuquerque in early 1992. The company had a stable base in the early 1990s that enabled it to take advantage of a boom in the consumption of natural and organic products. With $2 million in investor funds, Wild Oats expanded into Arizona and Missouri in 1992 and into California in 1993. With 650 employees and 1993 sales of $50 million, Wild Oats had become the third largest natural foods chain in the United States.
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Wikipedia