Costco Wholesale Corp. maintained momentum during its holiday quarter with better-than-expected earnings and sales fuelled by strong consumer demand in-store and online.
On the company’s earnings call, executives said Costco expects to have 28 net new openings in its current fiscal year and is targeting 30-plus new opening annually in the “coming years”.
Capital expenditures are expected to reach $6.5bn for the year as the company continues to invest in “building a larger pipeline of new warehouses, remodelling our existing warehouses to drive continuous growth in high-volume buildings, expanding our depot network to support operations and enhancing the member digital experience”, CFO Gary Millerchip said on the call.
On the subject of tariffs, CEO Ron Vachris said on the call that their impact “remains extremely fluid” in the wake of the new global tariffs imposed by President Trump after the tariffs he imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act were overturned by the Supreme Court.
Costco currently operates 924 warehouses, including 634 in the US and Puerto Rico, 114 in Canada, 42 in Mexico, 37 in Japan, 29 in the UK, 20 in Korea, 15 in Australia, 14 in Taiwan, seven in China, five in Spain, three in France, two in Sweden and one each in Iceland and New Zealand. Costco also operates e-commerce sites in the US, Canada, the UK, Mexico, Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Australia.
