2 Utah stores among 13 being sold by Whole Foods

AUSTIN, Texas — Whole Foods Market Inc. will sell 13 stores to resolve the Federal Trade Commission's challenge of its $565 million purchase of Wild Oats Markets, the company said Friday.

Whole Foods is putting 12 Wild Oats stores and one Whole Foods store up for sale in Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Missouri, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon and Utah. The Utah stores that will be sold are located at 6930 S. Highland Drive in Cottonwood Heights and 3736 W. Center Park Drive in West Jordan. The company also has stores at 645 E. 400 South, Salt Lake City, and in Sugar House and Park City, plus a store planned for Trolley Square.

The company, based in Austin, Texas, will also sell leases and assets of 19 Wild Oats stores that have closed. In a statement, Whole Foods Chief Executive John Mackey said the 13 operating stores will do "business as usual."

Federal regulators had challenged Whole Foods' 2007 acquisition of Wild Oats, based in Boulder, Colo., worrying the deal would create a natural-food monopoly.

The FTC's leader said in a statement that selling the stores will "substantially" restore competition that the purchase eliminated.

"As a result of this settlement, American consumers will see more choices and lower prices for organic foods," FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said in the statement.

Whole Foods and Wild Oats were one another's closest competitors in markets where they overlapped, the FTC said.

Whole Foods sued the FTC in December, contending the regulator violated its due process rights in the dispute. Whole Foods then refiled the case in January in the U.S. District Court of Appeals in Washington to get an expedited decision. The court later denied that motion.

Once the FTC approves the settlement, which it is expected to do before April 30, Whole Foods plans to take a noncash charge of no more than $19 million for the sale of the stores, which recorded sales of $31 million in the fiscal first quarter of 2009.

Shares of Whole Foods gained 30 cents, or 2.6 pecent, to close at $12.08 Friday.