(Ian Ritter is national online editor for GlobeSt.com/RETAIL.)

LONDON-Whole Foods World Market is in the midst of planning a 75,000-sf flagship store in Central London, on Kensington High Street, in 2007. The store will be the first in Europe for the Austin, TX-based retailer under its namesake brand, and executives are planning more on the continent.

Whole Foods first entered the UK in January of last year when it acquired Fresh & Wild, a chain of seven natural-food stores, for $38 million. However, those units are much smaller, at an average of 5,200 sf, than a full-line Whole Foods.

Company executives likened their European expansion to the company's push into New York City. In February 2004, the retailer opened the largest supermarket in the city, a 59,000-sf location in the Time Warner Center. The grocer currently operates three stores in Manhattan, and Whole Foods officials are said to be looking aggressively at sites Downtown.