who-owns-costco

Who Owns Costco?

Business / By / January 23, 2023

Costco runs a high-quality, low-priced business model powered by its memberships that draw customers’ loyalty and repeat purchases. Top institutional investors comprise The Vanguard Group, with 8.42%, and BlackRock, 56.80%. Top individual shareholders comprise Craig Jelinek, Charles T. Munger (Warren Buffet partner and co-owner of Berkshire Hathaway), James Murphy, and more.

Costco’s top individual and institutional investors

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Costco’s top institutional investors comprise large mutual funds like Vanguard Group and BlackRock.
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. Top individual shareholders comprise Craig Jelinek, Charles T. Munger (Warren Buffet partner and co-owner of Berkshire Hathaway), James Murphy, and more.

Short History of Costco

  • Costco is a multinational big-box chain of membership-only retail stores that has existed in some form since 1976. Costco is now the fifth most impactful retailer in the world behind Walmart, Amazon, Schwarz Group, and Aldi.
  • Costco was founded seven years after Price Club by Jeffrey H. Brotman and James D. Sinegal. With similar business models and at a comparable stage of growth, the two companies merged in 1993 to become Price Costco.
  • In 1995, the company launched the successful Kirkland Signature private label brand and changed its name to Costco Companies Inc. in 1997.

Costo Business Model

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With a substantial part of its business focused on selling merchandise at a low-profit margin, Costco also has about fifty million members. Each year, it guarantees over $2.8 billion in steady income at high-profit margins. Costco uses a single-step distribution strategy to sell its inventory.

Costco SWOT Analysis

costco-swot-analysis
Costco is a large American multinational corporation focusing on low-cost, membership-only retail warehouse clubs. Costco is the 4th largest retail operator worldwide, operating 785 warehouses in 10 countries. Indeed, it has enjoyed rapid success growing from zero to $3 billion in sales within six years.

Read Also: Costco Business Model, Costco SWOT Analysis.

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About The Author

Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
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