Wharton’s Marshall Fisher discusses how retailers can break their ‘addiction’ to top-line growth and adding new stores. Eventually, they run out of new territory and must refocus on building margins by improving same store sales. Fisher describes how 17 retailers did it and the common themes they used. There are lessons here for companies like […]
Most top grocers fail on bee and pollinator protection Poll shows 80 percent of Americans support eliminating bee-killing pesticides from agriculture A new report and scorecard grades 20 of the largest food retailers in the U.S on their policies and practices regarding pollinator protection, organic offerings and pesticide reduction. Of the top food retailers, 17 received an “F” for failing to […]
Today is your last chance to vote for real proxy access at Whole Foods Market Inc. (WFM, $WFM), unless you plan to attend the meeting in San Francisco tomorrow. The annual shareholder’s meeting will be held at the Fairmont Hotel, 950 Mason Street, San Francisco, California 94108 and will begin at 8 a.m. See Pension funds line up […]
In the wake of a New York Times story by Mark Oppenheimer about Whole Foods Market CEO John Mackey’s relationship with former rabbi and alleged sex offender Marc Gafni, the company has come under scrutiny. (A Spiritual Leader Gains Stature, Trailed by a Troubled Past) On December 25th, The Times story reported Gafni saying of one […]
As I have mentioned in other posts (see especially Proxy Access Lite: Victories at Whole Foods, H&R Block), several companies have adopted proxy access ‘lite’ with provisions that make implementation excessively difficult and less effective than they would have been under the SEC’s universal proxy access Rule 14a-11. Although I withdrew proposals at several companies, based on the […]
In response to proxy access proposals filed this year, both Whole Foods Market (WFM) and H&R Block (HRB) have adopted proxy access. While I had filed standard proposals seeking the ability of shareholders with 3% of shares held for 3 years to be able to nominate up to 25% of the board, both companies adopted […]
Take Action: Comment on SEC’s Rule 14a-8(i)(9) Review As proxy season draws to an end, managers, boards and their legal advisors are calling on the SEC to allow companies to exclude shareholder proposals if a company includes a proxy proposal on the same subject, even if it would do the opposite of the shareholder proposal. […]
Let’s see more good news like the following: Friends of the Earth, Domini Social Investments and Trillium Asset Management praised Lowe’s (NYSE: LOW) for making a commitment to eliminate neonicotinoid pesticides — a leading contributor to global bee declines — from its stores. After input from suppliers, NGOs, investors and other key stakeholders, the company announced it will phase out […]
Proxy Mosaic is beginning a series of dialogues. The first is entitled “Are Meaningful Shareholder Proposals a Thing of the Past?” (more…)
Still having difficulty trying to figure out what to do with my proxy access proposal, Whole Foods Market today announced they will delay their annual meeting. They filed an 8-K with the SEC, which includes the following: (more…)
Just a quick note to other shareholders who have filed proxy proposals this season. If the company you filed with requested and obtained a no-action letter from the SEC under Rule 14a-8(i)(9), you might obtain a reversal of that sanctioned exclusion. However, as far as I know, you need to ask for reconsideration. I don’t think […]
Apologies to those tired of reading about the issue of proxy access at Whole Foods. However, the SEC’s no action letter is a real watershed moment in the long struggle for proxy access, which began in earnest for me with a rulemaking petition in August 2002 but which others have been puruing for decades. Last Friday […]
The Counsel of Institutional Investors (CII) took a very strong stand yesterday, asking Whole Foods Market to amend its proxy access proposal to conform with the “3 percent for three years” standard applicable to groups. Whole Foods appears to have generated their proposal in direct response to mine in order to obtain a no-action letter from the […]
Nice to see the Gretchen Morgenson of the New York Times writing about my appeal of the SEC’s no-action letter allowing Whole Foods Market to exclude my proxy access proposal. (Whole Foods’ High Hurdle for Investors, 1/3/2015) As Morgenson, writes: (more…)
Whole Foods Market (WFM) is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is on 3/9/2012. By the time I post this, voting will have ended on MoxyVote.com‘s platform. However, you can still vote at proxyvote.com and you can still visit MoxyVote.com for recommendations from eight “good causes,” (more…)
As I previously posted, Whole Foods Splits Positions, WFMI’s shareowners are making progress. Now, I see from their SEC filing they did more than split CEO and Chair positions. Additionally, our board of directors amended Article IX of our bylaws to provide that, in order for shareholders to approve an amendment to, or a Bylaw […]