Bob Scowcroft | natural and organic products | Austin | current CEO

Hatched 25 years ago after the four owners of two natural-foods groceries in Austin - a group that includes current CEO John Mackey - decided to join forces in one small store, Whole Foods has erupted into one of the largest purveyors of natural and organic products in the country, with its 37,000 employees selling three-quarters of a billion pounds of produce a year. Along the way, the VW Beetle crowd that made Whole Foods a cult fave in central Texas has been joined in the parking lot by the BMW and SUV set. There are now 180 stores scattered from Beverly Hills to Manhattan and across the Atlantic to London. By 2010, the chain plans to swell to 300 stores with $12 billion in annual sales - up from $3.9 billion in 2004.

While each store's green section operates individually, anywhere from 40 percent to 70 percent of the offerings are certified organic. And as each new store has opened up for the steadily growing chain, it has helped widen the demand for succulent organics.

After all, says Bob Scowcroft, executive director of the nonprofit Organic Farming Research Foundation, it was Whole Foods that created a fresh image for ­organic ­produce. Its corporate roots may be tie-dyed in back-to-the-land idealism, but the brand's urban success is an outgrowth of an affluent demand for gourmet health food and the pocketbooks to meet the price. That approach, adds Scowcroft, has "taken organic from an individual taste and sensual pleasure to a successful Wall Street strategy." And in business, success is always defined by how closely imitated you are by the competition.

"So many of the retail chains have added organics in response to Whole Foods' success," says Myra Goodman. "They're saying, 'Wow, upscale shoppers are going five miles to Whole Foods. We better start offering organic.'?"