By Lisa Baertlein and Chris Prentice
Amazon's
In addition, Whole Foods adopted a Costco Wholesale Corpstyle model for in-store sampling, asking companies topay fees when Whole Foods offers shoppers free samples of theirproducts.
Those changes caused heartburn for some small upstartbrands. "There's been a lot of brands at Whole Foods thatprobably shouldn't have been there to begin with," said foodindustry consultant Phil Lempert, who added that it should notbe a surprise that the formerly freewheeling retailer isbeginning to act like a more mainstream business.
Several mid-sized suppliers told Reuters they supportedWhole Foods' efforts to date.
"We have a chance to move faster," said Califia Farms ChiefExecutive Greg Steltenpohl, among those who said he planned toattend the summit.
Califia sells almond milk and bottled coffee drinks at WholeFoods and on Amazon.com, which recently invited the
"The changes we've been making across the company directlyaddress the feedback our supplier partners have shared over theyears about the challenges of our decentralized purchasingstructure and inconsistent practices across regions and stores,"Whole Foods spokeswoman Robin Rehfield Kelly said in astatement.
Kelly said Whole Foods has worked for the last two years tostreamline its processes across global and regional purchasingteams to ensure all its suppliers are supported under aconsistent company-wide set of protocols.
Whole Foods Chief Executive John Mackey and members of thechain's marketing and merchandising team will host the summit.
PIONEER 2.0
Whole Foods explosive growth faltered after Kroger Co, Walmart and other retailers started chargingless for the many of the natural, organic and niche productsthat once set Whole Foods apart, giving it the ability to chargepremium prices.
Since the restructuring, Whole Foods has replaced orstripped the power of its regional "foragers," who identifiedand nurtured small brands. Without those champions, some ofthose products are being eliminated to make space for bigger,faster-moving brands.
"It was kind of disorganized before. More organization andclear communications is definitely better," said Steve Savage,chief executive of
"Amazon has encouraged Whole Foods to be more aggressive,"said Jeff "Trip" Tripician, general manager of Niman Ranch. Itsaw a robust rise in sales of its hams, sausage and bacon at the473-store chain since the Amazon purchase, he said.
Average monthly foot traffic at Whole Foods has increased by1.3 percent since the Amazon acquisition news broke in June,according to Venice Beach,