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NEW YORK, April 5, 2005, Matthew Enis, Supermarket News: Whole
Foods Market announced yesterday that it will begin
informing customers that its private-label brands are
made with non-genetically engineered ingredients. "We've
decided that we're going to take more of a leadership
role on [this issue]," Chief Executive Officer
John Mackey said at a shareholders meeting here. A coalition
of six social responsibility funds controlling a combined
$21 million in Whole Foods stock had introduced a proxy
ballot proposal to require the company to label its
brands GMO-free, but the measure failed to garner sufficient
votes.
Although the company did not present a timeline, Mackey
said Whole Foods would move forward on the initiative
despite the failed vote, and was already in the early
stages of re-evaluating its ingredient auditing processes.
"I think this is a terrific, farsighted act on
the part of the company, and we're very pleased that
they decided to do this," Shelly Alpern, assistant
vice president and director of social research for Trillium
Asset Management, told SN. In a review of the company's
most recent annual report, Mackey noted that Whole Foods
had its best year ever in 2004, with 14.9% comparable-store
sales growth leading to a 23% increase in sales over
2003, to just under $4 billion.
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