All prices will be revealed from next Wednesday when the store opens at 8am. Video / Carson Bluck
One of the world's biggest retailers anticipates more interactions with New Zealand businesses when it opens here next week.
Patrick Noone, Costco Warehouse country manager for Australia and New Zealand, wants more Kiwi businesses to get in touch and offer more products, which could then be sold in 828 locationsglobally.
Already, New Zealand products are prominent in the natural health foods section, Noone says, showing off a jar of Mānuka honey sold here and overseas.
"What I'd say to them is 'come into Costco, walk around and see how we like to do things'. It's about efficiency of scale. Rather than making 12 variations, make one able to be packed on a pallet, larger products because you have put more value in a larger pack," Noone said.
Costco's latest annual report cited net sales for the 52-week fiscal year to August 2021 totalling US$192 billion, up 18 per cent. Net income was US$5b, up 25 per cent. Revenue from membership fees rose 9 per cent to US$3.9b.
The chain had stores in 828 locations at the end of last year of which 572 are in the US, 105 in Canada, two in China and 13 in Australia. It employs 288,000 people.
It buys most of its merchandise directly from manufacturers and its strategy is to provide members with a broad range of quality goods at prices consistently lower than elsewhere.
To show off New Zealand products, Noone holds up a 1kg jar of Mānuka Health Honey which Costco says is "traceable from beekeeper to jar and tested for quality, purity and New Zealand origin". In a Seattle Costco, that ultra-high grade jar goes for US$79.99.
Patrick Noone with one of the Kiwi products at Auckland's new Costco Warehouse. Photo / Anne Gibson
Apples from New Zealand "go around the world" and our cherries are sold in Asian Costco stores "so it's a lot of horticulture but also a lot of health and beauty with manufactured products coming from New Zealand".
Sealy Posturepedic luxury mattresses and beds have a trump advertising position at New Zealand's first $100 million Costco Warehouse, taking up a bay-entry display near the coffins and artificial turf inside the front door.
Costco Warehouse at Westgate can't sell alcohol due to it being in The Trusts west Auckland area but overseas, the stores sell Kirkland Signature-branded Ti Point Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc.
Everblue haircare shampoo and conditioner in 800ml bottles. Photo / Supplied
The Herald reported today how an award-winning New Zealand-made haircare brand went supersized after winning a contract with big-box retailer Costco. Kiwi-made Everblue haircare has designed 800ml bottles of their shampoo and conditioner for the store famous for its bulk products.
"It's really exciting for us going into Costco, the overseas market and the big format," Everblue chief operating officer Renee Lee said.
"In typical Costco fashion it is supersized so it is an 800ml bottle of our shampoo and conditioner and then a gift pack so it is all packaged up together - it is going to be a very busy few months for us."
Picking up a twin-pack of Everblue hair product, Noone says: "If we could get vendors to package it like that ... you have the big size and can make enough."
Yarrows Bakery at Manaia ships out container loads of its frozen pastry goods for Costco in Australia.
The croissants are in dozen-packs which are sent frozen in containers across the Tasman, then thawed and cooked in the warehouse stores for customers to take home fresh.
"Our croissants are from Yarrows Bakery south of Auckland," Noone says.
Yarrows says: "Our flagship state-of-the-art bakery is located in the small south Taranaki town of Manaia and operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We supply an extensive range of breads, rolls, croissants, cookies and other quality baking products to leading supermarkets, retailers and food companies, all produced on highly specialised modern equipment."
Noone also pointed out bottles of Biogenic Aloe Vera Tonic made here and sold in Costco, along with health supplement Happy Gut from Two Islands which also supplies Collagen Beauty Capsules.
Go Men's Multi Advanced capsules are also on the shelves in Auckland and stocked at other Costcos, Noone said.
Vendors who wanted to engage with Costco must think particularly about packaging and size on the pallets, Noone says. Goods are taken directly from trucks and stacked onto the warehouse floor so appearance and practicality were a key, he says.
• Costco Warehouse opens here at 8am, Wednesday, September 28.
