Wednesday 20 May 2026 9:56 am
| Updated:
Wednesday 20 May 2026 9:57 am
Costco has seen a rise in memberships
Profit at Costco’s UK subsidiary has soared as Brits flocked to the wholesaler to buy in bulk in a bid to swerve cost of living pressures.The grocery chain, which has 29 stores across the UK, including six in London, generated pre-tax profit of £218.6m in the year to the end of August 2025, a jump of 15.7 per cent from last year, while turnover rose 5.2 per cent to £5.6bn, putting the firm within the top 10 biggest supermarkets in Britain by turnover.Costco said it saw a 15.6 per cent surge in e-commerce sales during the year, driven by growing demand for small appliances, jewellery and furniture, as well as “strong demand for gold bullion.”Costco cheered rising memberships and customer footfall during the year.“Increases in our core merchandise sales was driven by expanded range of items, particularly in foods and sundries, as well as continued focus on item selection across our merchandise categories to enhance value,” the company said.“In the period we also saw good sales uplift during trade focus days as our members took advantage of trade promotions but also bought other items In our fresh category sales increase was driven from a combination of additional basket items, some inflationary price increases as well as switching to more premium protein meat items with higher average selling prices.”Costco’s US parent, headquartered in Washington, has also had a stellar run, with the stock within touching distance of hitting the $500bn market cap mark for the first time.Its shares are up 28 per cent since the start of the year, making it one of the best performers on the Nasdaq this year, eclipsing the performances of tech giants such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon.The UK is Costco’s fifth biggest market worldwide and the largest in Europe. But the scale of Costco’s UK presence remains pale in comparison to the US, where it has more than 600 stores, and Canada, where it has more than 100. The company generates around $300bn turnover worldwide.
