US big box retail giant Costco will open its second Australian outlet in Sydney next week, two years after its flagship store in Melbourne began trading.
Costco Australia managing director Patrick Noone told the Smart Company website he hoped the Sydney location would be more profitable than Melbourne’s Docklands store.
“I think Melbourne is quite accessible through the highway system and Auburn is not dissimilar. We also have the fact Sydney’s store is more in the geographical centre of the city and there are more people to catch,” Mr Noone said.
Costco’s Melbourne store generated total revenue of A$165.9m in its first year of trading, A$20.9m more than averaged earnings at Costco’s US stores.
Mr Noone told Smart Company Costco was identifying locations around Australia to develop more stores.
“We’re definitely looking at all the big cities, as well as looking at additional buildings we could do in Sydney and Melbourne, although you still have Adelaide and Brisbane that are very attractive cities as well,” he said.
“We have things we want to do, especially as we want to build bigger sites than the first two. We’re simply waiting for sites and prices to see where we can go.”
Costco’s chief financial officer and vice-president Richard Galanti was quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald in October of last year as saying the company was fighting a running battle with Australia’s two main supermarket operators Coles and Woolworth, which were trying to block the company’s expansion.
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