Costco Aims for 3 More Australian Warehouses by 2013
Despite successive net losses it posted in the past years, U.S. retail giant Costco reportedly plans to further expand in the Australian market following its entry in 2008.
According to BusinessDay, some $140 million will be spent for possibly additional warehouses in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney on top of its existing operations in the country - two in the latter two cities and another in Canberra, which opened its doors last year.
"We would like to do two stores in calendar 2013, ideally; we could do three but are likely to do two for sure. We have a couple of sites we are working on, one in Sydney and we do like the market in Queensland and would like to have a site up there in Brisbane next year," Costco Australia managing director Patrick Noone told BusinessDay.
Costco specialises in mammoth warehouses that offer heavy discounting on groceries, apparels and other merchandises.
Membership is required for customers to access the discounted prices in Costco warehouses and in Australia's case, shoppers pay an annual membership fee of $60.
Their American counterparts were reportedly slated to fork over more dollars to maintain their membership this year but the hike will not be applied to Australian shoppers, Noone assured.
Noone said that Costco has been buoyed by the reception it garnered from Australian consumers, which BusinessDay said contributed to its overall revenue of $245 million in the 12 months leading to August 2011.
For the past two financial years, Costco revealed that it achieved an annual revenue average of $165 million, which Noone said had eclipsed the annual turnovers of Costco outlets in America.
Bulk purchases of essentials plus some luxurious offerings appear to be a hit among Australians, Noone told BusinessDay.
He admitted though that Costco Australia has yet to move past the net losses it has been seeing since entering the local retail market but the company's expansion plans were not affected at all as manifested by the fresh capital infusions.
The biggest stumbling block for setting more Costco outlets at this time is not its financial results but the availability of viable space to host the U.S. retailer's giant warehouses.
Coles and Woolworths still command the Australian retail industry by dominating more than 90 percent of the market between them, leaving enough room for international players to come in.