Lower petrol prices boost Costco UK’s profit to nearly £200m. The UK’s Costco division reported that declining fuel prices during the latest financial year led to an increase in membership sign-ups and renewals, subsequently driving more shoppers to their warehouses. The membership-based retailer, with 29 UK locations, posted a pre-tax profit of £188.9 million for the year ending 1 September 2024, up from £139.2 million the previous year. New accounts submitted to Companies House reveal that turnover grew from £5 billion to £5.3 billion during the same period. Furthermore, Costco UK’s workforce expanded from 8,194 to 8,654 employees over the year.
A board-approved statement noted: “The company continues to face challenges from inflation in commodities, utility costs, and labour. Despite these pressures, buying and operations teams have shown remarkable resilience and dedication in implementing strategies to mitigate the impact on both our members and the business. To partially counteract these cost increases, we continued to improve operating efficiencies.”
Regarding future prospects, Costco stated: “Our outlook remains optimistic as our business continues to grow its value reputation and membership base, leverage pricing through higher volumes, improve efficiency and enhance its online platform, offers and services. Although the petrol business has experienced a slight decrease in sales due to price deflation, it continues to have a positive impact on our membership sign-ups and renewals, which in turn has resulted in higher footfall in our warehouses. We believe our business is scalable, resilient and agile. Drawing on a greater depth of product lines now afforded by our suppliers, economies of scale, the power of global buying and a well-funded infrastructure, we will continue to offer our members a wide range of quality products and competitive prices, whether they shop with us in our warehouses or through our e-commerce channel.”
