Retail in Asia

In Sectors

Grocery war in Australia intensifies as Costco enters market

US supermarket giant Costco has opened its newest store in Sydney on Thursday. The 12,500-square-meter warehouse is Costco’s second store in Australia. A third store was also opened in Canberra on Friday.

Costco is the latest entrant to Australia’s competitive supermarket space challenging the dominance of Coles and Woolworths. "I see a lot of opportunity in the Australia market and in bringing new branded goods to market. There’s a wealth of opportunity for people that have the right business model," the company’s Australian head Patrick Noone said.

For many years now the Australian supermarket space has been dominated by Coles (owned by Wesfarmers) and Woolworths. Together these companies control over 70 percent of the AUD80 billion (USD85.6 billion) per annum grocery market.

(Source: CNBC)