Whole Foods Market (WFM) has announced changes to its corporate merchandising and operations, team member services and technology teams in order to improve support for stores as well as distribution centers.

The company said that the changes are designed to improve support for the stores and distribution centers as they remain committed to delivering an "exceptional customer experience in stores and online".

WFM will continue to grow the business, expand its reach, create jobs and grow its team members, as well as introducing new concepts while elevating customer experience.

However, the changes "will not impact any store or distribution center-based roles and are limited in scope to global and regional office roles".

In a communication to all team members, WFM shared the changes that will be taking place and the benefits the company will see as a result.

The global and regional merchandising teams will be merged into a single team that will support purchasing across the entire company.

Dedicated operations teams in the regions will now focus on merchandising execution and in-store operations, including e-commerce and store support. New leadership roles focused on local products and supplier relationships will also be created.

Whole Foods Market will realign the current team member services organization to enable the company to provide more "consistent, strategic support across all regions in key areas such as recruiting, training, compensation and benefits, and career development".

The technology organization will transition to focus more on skills required for software engineering and technical product and program manager roles.

"This shift will allow us to build new internal capabilities, further differentiate our customer offerings, and rapidly develop tools for our business and customers at the speed of retail."

"As a company rooted in our higher purpose, we are confident these changes will position us to better support our stores and serve our customers as we continue to grow."

"As we look to the rest of 2021 and beyond, we are excited to resume services that were suspended due to the pandemic and continue serving more communities, leading the way in shaping the future of grocery retail and advancing our purpose to nourish people and the planet for many years to come."