Mackey Recruits WFM Execs To Form Wellness Hospitality Company
Whole Foods Market CEO and founder John Mackey isn’t planning to slow down when he retires from the natural food retailer next month. Alongside several former WFM executives, including his former co-CEO Walter Robb, Mackey will open a chain of wellness centers and restaurants next year, Bloomberg reported.
Mackey, who founded the natural products retailer in 1978, announced last year that he would step down as CEO in 2022, turning the reins over to COO Jason Buechel. Robb, who became co-CEO in 2010, retired from the company in 2017 to focus on investing in and advising sustainable food and beverage companies.
Now the two are reuniting to launch Healthy America LLC, a chain of wellness centers offering fitness and spa services, as well as plant-based restaurants. According to an SEC filing from earlier this year, the company, which was incorporated in 2020, has raised roughly $31 million in funding. Both Robb and former WFM executive Betsy Foster are listed on the Form D as executive officers and directors, with Foster, who worked at Whole Foods for roughly 26 years, listed as the company’s CEO on LinkedIn.
According to Linkedin, the following WFM executives have also joined Mackey and Robb
- Michael Bashaw, former WFM SVP of store development, as SVP of design and construction
- Ben Shearer, former WFM director of design and development, as VP of construction
- Bob Murray, former WFM director of Benefits and Wellness Strategy, as VP of finance accounting
Robin Kelly, VP of communications for Whole Foods Market, is acting as a spokesperson for the new venture.
Healthy America’s LinkedIn page offers little detail, only stating that it will “[bring] healthcare, culinary, lifestyle and community together for the first time ever.” The company owns the trademarks for Love Life! and Cafe Vitality, both of which list Whole Foods global headquarters as the owner’s address and are registered for use in plant-based restaurants. The Love Life! trademark also applies to educational services and healthcare offerings.
The first Healthy America facility will be a Love Life! restaurant in Southern California in 2023, Bloomberg noted.
Opening a wellness center and hotel has been a long-held goal for Mackey, who stated his intention for Whole Foods to open a resort in Austin in 2013, a project which was never completed. The company then teamed up with spa Milk and Honey to open an Austin location, later expanding it to the retailer’s Boston-area Ink Block store.
Under Mackey’s leadership, Whole Foods has launched various travel offerings, to mixed results.
Whole Journeys, the company’s former travel agency, appears to still be operational though it’s no longer affiliated with Whole Foods, according to the CEO’s LinkedIn profile. In addition to more traditional trips, Whole Journeys offered week-long, diet-focused retreats which included exercise classes, meals, lectures and nightly cooking classes for $3,500.
Team members have also gone on Whole Planet volunteer trips to locations such as Costa Rica and in 2013, inspired by the release of Mackey’s book Conscious Capitalism, Whole Foods held a series of management retreats to explore past traumas, interpersonal relationships and gain leadership skills.
Healthy America, and Mackey, could also pull from Whole Foods’ various health offerings to shape future wellness programs.
Whole Foods’ Healthy Discount Incentive offers team members larger in-store discounts depending on the results of “biometric screenings” that measure BMI, blood pressure and cholesterol. For those employees with health conditions such as obesity or high cholesterol, Whole Foods also offers “Healthy Eating Immersion” trips. Held at resorts across the country, each immersion focused on a different diet methodology developed by experts such as Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Dr. Joel Furman and Dr. John McDougal. After the immersion, which typically espoused a plant-based, low-fat, whole grain diet, employees were offered an extra discount at Whole Foods in exchange for continued monitoring.
