Whole Foods Market Inc. The following link will take you to quarterly sales data
ID: 2426083 • Letter: W
Question
Whole Foods Market Inc.
The following link will take you to quarterly sales data for the past five years (use the Five-Year Historical Data, Sales column):
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/company-info/investor-relations/financial-results
Use the quarterly data to do the following:
a. Graph the data. Label axes appropriately.
b. Calculate seasonal indexes for each quarter
c. Run a trendline through the plot of the data.
d. Use the trendline and the seasonal indexes to make forecasts for the next four quarters.
e. Explain why Whole Foods sales might peak in the first quarter of each year. Provide examples of products that a Whole Foods store might carry that have high demand in the first quarter of the year.
Explanation / Answer
a.
The graph of sales data for the past five years is as under:
The graph of all the five years quarterly sales data is as under:
The graph of quarterly sales for the ended 2011 is as under:
The graph of quarterly sales for the ended 2012 is as under:
The graph of quarterly sales for the ended 2013 is as under:
The graph of quarterly sales for the ended 2014 is as under:
The graph of quarterly sales for the ended 2015 is as under:
b.
The seasonal indexes for each quarter for past five years calculated as under:
The seasonal index of each quarter is calculated by dividing actual sales value by average sales value.
The calculation of seasonal index of each quarter is as under:
Year 2011
Year 2012
Year 2013
Year 2014
Year 2015
Qtr 1
3003.655
3390.94
3856
4239
4671
Qtr2
2350.518
2670.282
3027
3322
3647
Qtr 3
2399.781
2727.279
3058
3377
3632
Qtr 4
2353.833
2910.327
2976
3256
3438
Total
10107.79
11698.83
12917
14194
15388
Average
2526.947
2924.707
3229.25
3548.5
3847
Year 2011
Year 2012
Year 2013
Year 2014
Year 2015
Qtr 1
1.18865
1.159412
1.194085
1.194589
1.214193
Qtr2
0.930181
0.913008
0.937369
0.93617
0.948011
Qtr 3
0.949676
0.932496
0.946969
0.95167
0.944112
Qtr 4
0.931493
0.995083
0.921576
0.917571
0.893683
Total
4
4
4
4
4
c.
The trend line and seasonal indexes for forecasting the next four quarters are as under:
The seasonal index for the four quarters of 6th Year is calculated by the average of the five years quarter seasonal index. The quarter 1 of the forecasted seasonal index is calculated by dividing the sum of seasonal index of quarter 1 of the year 2011 to 2015 with the number 5 (which is the total number of years).
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4
Year 5
Forecasted Year 6
Qtr 1
1.18865
1.159412
1.194085
1.194589
1.214193
1.19018584
Qtr2
0.930181
0.913008
0.937369
0.93617
0.948011
0.93294809
Qtr 3
0.949676
0.932496
0.946969
0.95167
0.944112
0.94498475
Qtr 4
0.931493
0.995083
0.921576
0.917571
0.893683
0.93188132
Total
4
4
4
4
4
4
The trend line for the forecasted year is as under:
d.
In the first quarter the sales of the company increases due to the reason that the company introduces new stores and also give attractive prices to all the products in this period.
Year 2011
Year 2012
Year 2013
Year 2014
Year 2015
Qtr 1
3003.655
3390.94
3856
4239
4671
Qtr2
2350.518
2670.282
3027
3322
3647
Qtr 3
2399.781
2727.279
3058
3377
3632
Qtr 4
2353.833
2910.327
2976
3256
3438
Total
10107.79
11698.83
12917
14194
15388
Average
2526.947
2924.707
3229.25
3548.5
3847
Year 2011
Year 2012
Year 2013
Year 2014
Year 2015
Qtr 1
1.18865
1.159412
1.194085
1.194589
1.214193
Qtr2
0.930181
0.913008
0.937369
0.93617
0.948011
Qtr 3
0.949676
0.932496
0.946969
0.95167
0.944112
Qtr 4
0.931493
0.995083
0.921576
0.917571
0.893683
Total
4
4
4
4
4
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