Costco Sweden off to a modest start
The retail magazine Market.se reported that Costco's turnover for the first full year in Sweden reached 556 million SEK (approx. 50 million €). This is clearly less than the average first-year turnover for a Costco warehouse. According to the 2023 annual report, the average warehouse opened in 2023 sold $151 million in its first year.
Sales in Sweden must have been influenced to some extent by the fact that Costco was a brand-new operator and quite a new concept (Snabbgross is probably quite close) in the country.
Costco's outgoing CFO, Richard Galanti, stated in the last interim report that sales in new markets will start slowly.
The revenues came at a cost. The company lost 209 million SEK during the first year of operation. This is almost 20 million €. This quite well in line with the losses that Lidl made during its first year of operation in Finland: 18,6 million €