Whole Foods sales improve after new store openings

Source: Whole Foods Market

Whole Foods aims to double its UK store estate by opening six new shops, including this one in Angel which opened in April.

Whole Foods Market’s losses have narrowed on the back of new store openings.

Sales at the Amazon-owned grocer increased by 2% to £88.3m in 2025 following the opening of its new flagship store on King’s Road in London in February 2025, according to latest accounts published at Companies House. 

However, higher supply chain and staffing costs dragged on its margins, which fell by one percentage point to 31%. The retailer was also hit by an onerous lease charge of nearly £1.5m in relation to other underperforming stores in its estate.

Overall, it means that pre-tax losses narrowed to £19.4m in the year to 31 December 2025, from £20m the previous year. It takes the premium retailer’s total losses to well beyond £200m since it first launched in the UK in 2004.

Despite its success in the US, Whole Foods Market has struggled to make a dent in the UK where its premium offer faces stiff competition from the likes of M&S, Waitrose and Planet Organic.

Whole Foods shuttered two of its struggling stores in Fulham and Richmond, along with its Dartford DC in 2024, in a major consolidation of its estate designed to “pave the way for future growth” around the UK.

The retailer has since kicked off a renewed global expansion plan. King’s Road was the first new Whole Foods store to open in more than a decade, and took the retailer’s estate to six stores, all based in London.

In March 2026, it announced plans to doubling its UK estate by opening six more. Five of the new locations are the site of former Amazon Fresh stores previously shuttered by Amazon following the exit of its Just Walk Out concept from the UK last year.

It has since opened stores in Angel, Liverpool Street, Notting Hill Gate, Wood Wharf and Monument. The final store at St James, in Westminster, London is set to open on 11 June.