...Costco Wholesale Corporation Costco Wholesale Corporation - Financial and Strategic Analysis Review Reference Code: GDRT28577FSA Publication Date: 10-Oct-2014 Company Snapshot Company Overview Key Information Costco Wholesale Corporation (Costco) is membership warehouses chain operator. The company's product portfolio includes sundries, hardlines, food, softlines, fresh food and ancillary. It offers two types of memberships, namely, business and gold star to its customers. Costco operates gasoline stations in the US and Canada. Costco offers its products online through websites including costco.com in the US and costco.ca in Canada. The company carries out the manufacture of products through Costco Wholesale Industries and operates about 663 warehouses. Geographically, the company operates in various countries including Taiwan, Korea, Mexico, Australia, the UK, Canada and Japan. Costco Wholesale Corporation, Key Information Web Address www.costco.com Financial year-end September Number of Employees 103,000 NASD COST Source : GlobalData Key Ratios Costco Wholesale Corporation, Key Ratios P/E 27.81 EV/EBITDA 18.25 Return on Equity (%) 18.82 SWOT Analysis Debt/Equity 0.48 Costco Wholesale Corporation, SWOT Analysis Strengths Weaknesses Operating profit margin (%) 2.90 Diverse Product Mix Dividend Yield 0.01 Dependence on the North American Market Value-Added Services Note: Above ratios...
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...Costco Marketing Plan Executive Summary: Costco is the largest membership warehouse club chains in the United States. As of July 2013, it is the fifth largest retailer in the United States and the ninth largest in the world. Costco is headquartered in Issaquah, Washington, and was founded in Seattle, Washington. Costco has locations in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Mexico, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and the United States. Costco offers their customers with low prices on selected local and a limited selection of nationally branded products in a wide range of merchandise categories. Businesses and families can rely on Costco to offer high quality goods and services at everyday low prices. Rapid inventory turnover, high sales volume per warehouse, leveraging an efficient operating structure, reduced handling of merchandise, and making themselves the low cost operator in retail are all key elements that make the company so successful. Costco’s main priority is to benefit their members by creating value for purchasing everyday products and services. Company Description: The company was founded by James Sinegal, current President and CEO of Costco, and Jeffrey Brotman, Chairman of the Board of Directors. In October of 1993 Costco merged with a company called Price Club to form Price/Costco, Inc. Price Club was the first company to establish the concept of a membership warehouse. In 1999, the company changed its name to Costco Wholesale Corporation and moved back...
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...this report is to conduct a comprehensive business performance analysis using financial historical information/analysis of Costco. While Costco may not seem to have the revenue, assets and market share like similar and larger companies such as Wal-Mart and Target they are without a doubt a very profitable and successful company. What Costco lacks in high margins, they make up for in being a highly efficient company boasting high asset and equity turnover while maintaining optimum liabilities and debt to equity ratios. Costco is a great company that is seeing profitable success due to their business model that prioritizes quality for both its customers and employees. However, emerging with the 21st century are new ways of doing business. Online companies like Amazon.com are quickly taking market share not just from Costco but also their biggest competitors: Wal-Mart and Target. In order to stay relevant, Costco will need to maintain their business growth in the coming years and also find ways to compete against online retail giants like Amazon.com. 1. Company Background Costco is a multi-billion dollar warehouse company that operates on a global scale. Consumers can frequent Costco to find merchandise including but not limited to groceries, electronics, furniture and home goods, pharmaceuticals and gasoline. Costco specializes in purchasing its merchandise wholesale and re-selling to consumers. Consumers who frequent the warehouse club are required to pay annual membership...
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...COMPANY BACKGROUND Costco was founded by Jim Sinegal and Seattle entrepreneur Jeff Brotman. Operation of the first store of Costco began in 1983. There were nine Costco stores in five states by end of 1984. Costco became a public company for raising additional fund for business expansion in December 1985.Costco successful to reach one billion dollar in sales in less than six years which make the company the first ever United States (U.S) that reach that huge amount of sales. Costco merge with Price Club in year 1993 and came out with name of PriceCostco. Later, the name was changed to Costco Wholesale Corporation in August 1999.This warehouse club chain have 57 million members. It sales volumes only based on its members as it only open to their members and guests. Costco is the fourth largest retailer in the US and is the seventh largest in the world. Currently, Costco holding market share or in other words industry standing of US and Canada is about 55% . Whereas its close competitor Sam's Club market share is about 36% and 9% by BJ’s Wholesale Club. Costco offer tremendously lower price products with good quality and branded name. The price which are offer by Costco much lower compare to other conventional wholesale or retail that sell similar items and products. Profit generated by the company from its membership fees is about one billion with E- commerce sales contributing about five hundred and thirty four million. It was estimated that the renewal rate of the card...
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...Financial Research Paper for Costco Company Overview for Costco Costco Wholesale Corporation operates affiliation warehouses that provide an assortment of exclusive and secluded label products in a variety of stock categories in no-frills, self-service warehouse facilities. The organizations product categories include candy, snack foods, tobacco, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, and cleaning and institutional supplies; appliances, electronics, health and beauty aids, hardware, office supplies, garden and patio, sporting goods, furniture, and automotive supplies; dry and institutionally packaged foods; apparel, domestics, jewelry, housewares, media, home furnishings, cameras, and small appliances; meat, bakery, deli, and produce; and gas stations, pharmacy, food court, optical, one-hour photo, hearing aid, and travel. It offers Business and Gold Star (individual) memberships. As of October 8, 2009, the corporation operated a chain of 560 warehouses encompassing 407 in 40 states and Puerto Rico, 77 in Canada, 21 in the United Kingdom, 7 in Korea, 6 in Taiwan, and 9 in Japan, as well as 32 warehouses in Mexico and 1 in Australia. Costco Wholesale Corporation also propositions its products through costco.com in the U.S. and through costco.ca in Canada. It has a strategic alliance with Valdez Heli-Camps. The company, formerly known as Costco Companies, Inc., was founded in 1976 and is based in Issaquah, Washington. The company’s premier membership is the executive...
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...Assuming the role of a Mutual Fund Manager, Costco Wholesale, a Fortune 500 company, has been chosen for analysis to decide whether to invest funds with the organization. This paper will high-light the results of a SWOT analysis, the internal and external stakeholders, their wants and needs, and finally, how their wants and needs are being met by the company. Costco Wholesale Company is an acknowledged market leader and was listed 28th in the top 100, most successful businesses in the world, in 2010, and 25th in 2011. “In 1975, a Mr. Solomon Price, sold his company Fed-Mart to begin a new retail venture, aimed at small businesses called the Price Club. Mr. Price invited Jim Sinegal, owner of Costco, to help him open the first Price Club Warehouse in 1976. Sinegal learned from Price the business of a high-volume warehouse with only a limited number of products, and left Price in 1983 to start Costco, with partner Jeff Brotman. Costco merged with Price some years later, and Sinegal bought Price out and remained as CEO of Costco. Today, as of August 31st, 2012, Costco has 608 warehouses, 66.5 million cardholders, 160,292 full and part-time employees world-wide, and a revenue of $88.9 billion annually” (Corona, 2012, p. 558). One cost advantage for Costco is that they sells in bulk; allowing customers to purchase goods at a cheaper price, no big fancy shelving or customized flooring, just warehouses full of stock. They spend less on advertising...
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...Costco Companies Inc. – Case Analysis * Karthik Sundar (668943916) EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Costco is a membership only club warehouse giant that operates globally. Most of its business is concentrated in the United States with its presence in a majority of the states. It is currently having good business figures of 115 Billion dollars in revenue and a net income of 15.3 Billion dollars. The following is a case study of the hurdles faced by the management at Costco during the period of 1998 when they had come up with a new venture of offering services to its customers. Costco’s sales driver is the fact that it sell a bulk of its products at very low margin to its customers. It is able to do so as it has a large inventory at each warehouse and operational costs aren’t very high. Despite having a large inventory, it has a high number of inventory turns at each of its inventories. Such operational efficiency helps them offer products at great prices to its customers. This value offered attracts a lot of small business and general public. Costco’s customers are a good mix of such business and general customers from the public. It operates on an exclusive membership with a member enrollment fee of 40$ during the period of this case (55$ currently). Major revenue generators are food and sundries amounting to about 60% of the sales at Costco. It has a good business model of operating at good efficiency, competitive pricing, commitment to the quality and great employee focus. A combination...
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...Business Analysis Part II R. Butler MGT/521 October 22, 2012 Melany Felton Business Analysis Part II The company chosen to research was Costco Wholesale, looking at the financial health of Costco Wholesale I had to determine their cash flow and how they fair with other similar organizations in the industry. When reviewing Costco Wholesale’s income statement/balanced sheets they showed a total net income of 609,000 from continuing operations and liabilities for the quarter, according to assets quarterly data for the period ending 8/2012. The cash equivalents, marketable securities, accounts receivables, other inventories and, current deferred income taxes accounting for other earnings. Costco had total current assets of 13,526,000 for this quarter. The income balance sheet for the period was 609,000 with the total revenues year to date of 1,709,000 (www.costcowholsale.html.com). A review of Wal-Mart/Sam’s club, Costco’s number one competitor, showed a quarterly balance for operating income after depreciation for the same period was 6,698,000 and income total revenue of 114,296,000 for the quarter (Wal-Mart, NYSE.WMT). A review of Target’s finance and total revenue is compared to Costco and Sams Club/Wal-Mart; however, Target does not operate the same type of warehouse store as its other competitors, but they do operate something similar in Target Super Stores. Target has over stores 1700 stores in 49 states and more than 240 Super Target stores. Balance sheets and...
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...Performance Analysis of Costco Wholesale Corporation xxxx Strayer University FIN 534: Financial Management Professor: xxxx June 11, 2012 Costco Wholesale Corporation Higher interest rates, levels of unemployment, consumer debt levels, and unsettled financial markets are general economic factors that can adversely affect the company’s financial performance. These key elements play an important role in how a company chooses to move forward operationally and financially. Therefore, it’s imperative that we as investors understand a company’s business strategy as well as have a general knowledge of issues which may impact their decisions. Prior to investing, we should review a company’s operations, stock price, and their ratios to decide if a firm a financially stable to meet their obligations. Company Overview Costco Wholesale Corporation and its subsidiaries (Costco) began operations on September 15, 1983 in Seattle, Washington. James Sinegal and Jeffery Brotman founded it. In October 1993, Costco merged with The Price Company, which established the membership warehouse model, to form Price/Costco, Inc. In January1997, the company changed its name to Costco Wholesale and all Price Club locations were rebranded as Costco Companies, Inc. August 30, 1999, the company was reincorporated and its name was changed to Costco Wholesale Corporation. To date, the company has grown to become the largest warehouse club retailer and the second largest general retailer...
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...Costco Craze Analysis MGT/230 Costco Craze Analysis Costco, a “no frills” operation that has successfully grown into a prosperous billion dollar empire by taking pride on its goodwill practices. Currently leading as the second largest retailer, it humbly maintains its runner-up spot by practicing smart business tactics, exquisite innovation and leadership. The company’s mission revolves around ethics for profit and price, and strives for satisfaction both internally and externally. The empowering corporation expresses great dignity in its operation, structure and management. Formerly known as “Price Club”, Costco has successfully rose from the top by enforcing a smart operation that would become profitable. CEO, Jim Sinegal had a vision that that consisted of selling bulk purchase items at low prices in a member’s only warehouse. It was important to the CEO that the operation ran on four important code of ethics in mind: obey the law, take care of members, take care of employees and respect vendors (Farfan, 2013). With that ethical approach, the company set out to deliver a unique method over the traditional grocery and retail store. It was considered a bit risky to declare a purchased membership to just be able to shop in the store, memberships start out at $55.00 U.S. dollars and can be upgraded to an executive membership of $110.00 U.S. dollars annually. The membership investment offers customers the opportunity to have access to top quality items purchased in bulk at a...
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...complete Five-Forces analysis of competition in the North American wholesale club industry. In North American wholesale club industry, there are three principal competitors: Costco Wholesale, Sam’s Club and BJ’s Wholesale Club. Costco has approximately 56% share of warehouse club sales in North America; Sam’s Club has about 36% share and the rest 8% goes to BJ’s Club and other small warehouse clubs. A five forces analysis Rival Sellers: This is a strong competitive force in this case. All these three principal competitors: Costco Wholesale, Sam’s Club and BJ’s Wholesale Club, charge membership fees and offer low prices to attract members. The competition among them is vigorous: the products they offer are similar and they all have price advantage. Customers may easily switch membership from one to another. Potential New Entrants: This is a weak competitive force in this case. The three principal competitors: Costco Wholesale, Sam’s Club and BJ’s Wholesale Club have advantage because it is difficult for new companies to enter this industry. To be a new entrant, a company must have large amount of capital to acquire big enough building and land to satisfy large scale buying and selling; also it has to have an established distribution network and has to compete with these three companies which already have high superiority in this industry. Substitute Products: This is a strong competitive force in this case. Not all families and business go to warehouse club to shop. Individuals...
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...Costco Inc. 2012: A Wholesale Membership Industry Analysis Using the Porter’s Five Forces Model Costco’s Company Background Costco is the third largest retailer in the U.S. as well as the seventh largest retailer in the world. It is leading the discount warehouse and wholesale club segment of the North American retailing industry. As of 2012, Costco had a total of 598 warehouses internationally. Costco’s fiscal 2011 total revenue was $88.9 billion and net income was $1.46 billion. Additionally Costco had $1.9 billion of membership fees revenue acquired from 25 million households and 6.4 million businesses making it the leader in the wholesale, membership industry. The annual sales for one of Costco’s competitors, Sam’s Club, averaged $146 million with a $78 million average per store. Costco’s business model aims to generate high sales volumes and rapid inventory turnover by offering fee-paying members attractively low prices on a limited selection of nationally branded and selected private-label products in a wide range of merchandise category. Rapid inventory turnover, low operating costs through purchasing high volumes, efficient distribution, and reduced merchandise handling costs are the major factors that make Costco profitable with relatively lower gross margins than other wholesale competitors. Also, the membership fee required from customers is a major revenue source thataccounts for approximately 70 percent of its total revenue annually. Additionally, Costco...
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...The History of Costco DeAna Castro Wilmington University Abstract Costco is a members only, international retail chain discount warehouse. An abstract is a summary of the paper that should be 250 words or less. It is not the same as the introduction. This will be the only paragraph in your essay that is NOT indented. It often contains topic, methods of research, discussion of literature, and conclusions. Please ask your instructor what he or she wants to see. The History of Costco The history of Costco began in July of 1976 in San Diego California and its name was Price Club. It was cofounded by Sol and Robert Price. The newly designed business was the first ‘warehouse’ business of it’s kind. This retail business originally targeted other business owners, but blended retail and wholesale. Price Club had unbeatable low prices and sold bulk items. Three years later, 1979, Price Club expanded two new locations. They acquired 200,000 members and profited 1 million dollars. Despite the loss of profits the first year, Price Club’s expansion proved profitable. Jim Sinegal is a key player to the success of Costco because he started his career being mentored by Sol Price. He worked in the warehouse business at Price Club and another warehouse business called Fedmart. (Cardon). 1983, Jim Sinegal and Jeff Brottman would open their own warehouse club near Seattle Washington, and it was called Costco Wholesale (Daft, 2012 pp. 605). One year later...
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...Costco Case Analysis Assignment # 1 Mark Frenkel MGMT 670 9046 02/21/11 Jim Sinegal initially took a job at Fed -Mart as a means to pay his bills while attending San Diego Community College never imaging that this decision would forever change the direction of his life. It was there that he met Sol Price, who ran the company and who mentored his further inclusion in the business. Sol had a vision that he acted on when he founded his Price Club with the goal of establishing a member warehouse retailing niche business. Having embarked on this path, he took Jim with him and they shared a vision for shaping how they would do business going forward. Initially, Price was content in becoming a leader in member warehouse retailing until he correctly recognized an opportunity to gain more sales volume and greater negotiating leverage with suppliers by granting membership to individuals which arguably created the market for deep-discount warehouse clubs. Sinegal excelled at understanding the driving elements in this type of marketing and became particularly adept at understanding what was working and what wasn’t at stores, which was something that Price was also very good at. Noticing these burgeoning skills, Price made him the manager of the original store. It was here that Sinegal learned the craft at the hands of his mentor, a task he did so with such skill that he decided to leave the proverbial nest and team up with Seattle-based...
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...Strategic Plan for Costco Wholesale Corporation Executive Summary The retail industry is an extremely competitive environment that poses many challenges for Costco Wholesale Corporation and its competitors. Since many of the stores offer the same products, it may sometimes be very hard for customers to differentiate between retail stores. Even though the economy is recovering from a recession, the retail business is still a mature industry and is improving very steadily. Costco and its competitors are affected by the same political, economic, social, and technological factors, such as taxes, presidential elections, SEC regulations, the economic state of the country, exchange rates, various social characteristics, such as customer age, income and family size, and the growth of e-commerce. All of these external factors have a great influence on how Costco conducts their operations. Costco is a premier leader in the retail industry thanks to their strategic pricing strategy, low cost operating system, and financial stability. Costco is still vulnerable to numerous threats, such as competition, exchange rates fluctuations, increasing labor and healthcare costs, and high exposure to low growth markets. If Costco is to maintain the market share in the retail industry, they should consider the options of offering more customer service in their warehouses, increase online retail sales, and acquire other retail stores for expansion and growth. Finally, if Costco wants to become...
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