Wild Oats Markets

Problem Identification

Problem

Wild Oats has been affected by 4 problems which have cut into the company 's profitability . First is stiff competition from its main rival Wholefoods ' whose president admittedly would prefer niche market domination rather than coexistence . The second is competition from retail supermarkets such as Walmart which have entered into the natural foods industry and as such have caused problems in relation to supply The third problem is the previous acquisition of Wild Oats during an era of rapid expansion of numerous stores that after a transition period

br were still not profitable . The last problem is a slow growth rate in sales at the rate of 1 .3 percent annual growth as compared to Wholefoods which boasts an annual growth of 10 percent

Analysis of Problem

Wild Oats has several options available to it if its wants to be able to overcome its current problems . The first option would be to remove its current poison pill ' tactic and allow a interested investors to own more than a 15 percent share of the company . This would result in an infusion of much needed capital enabling Wild Oats to create new methods of development in to compete with its rivals . The second option it has available would be to consolidate the stores it has to strong markets and sell off or close the stores with low profitability or high competition in the area . One of the reasons Wild Oats ran into problems in the first place was due...