Costco Australia has successfully opened its first Victorian petrol outlet at Moorabbin Airport, Melbourne, with diesel and petrol prices reportedly up to 10 to 30 cents a litre better than nearby competitors. Although one newspaper report last week said savings were up to 15.2c a litre on diesel and 5.2c a litre on unleaded petrol.
The petrol station opens 6.00am-9.30pm weekdays, 6.00am-7.30pm on Saturdays and 7.00am-7.30pm on Sundays. Costco now plans to open petrol stations at all new Costco warehouse stores where sites allow.
The opening of the Moorabbin Airport fuel site at Chifley Drive last week will be followed by the opening of the new Costco warehouse store on November 18, Costco confirmed. Another Costco warehouse store is being tipped to open at Marsden Park, Sydney in 2016.
“The (adjacent) Moorabbin store is scheduled to open at 8am on November 18 and will be our 8th Australian location, our third in Victoria and our first in Victoria with a fuel station,” a Costco spokesperson said.
“Moorabbin follows Crossroads (NSW), Canberra, Northlakes and Adelaide in bringing the Costco fuel offering to our members. We currently have no further openings confirmed at this point, although our goal is that, where new sites permit, we will open with a fuel station.
“We have been very happy with fuel station sales and our members are certainly seeing value at the pump. We hope to be able to offer savings to our members throughout Australia.”
While Costco would not discuss sales growth in detail the company said that its business continues to grow. In May, Costco Australia CEO Patrick Noone said that he expects the Australian business will post a profit this financial year and generate $1.0 billion in sales, compared with sales of $878.5 million for the year ending August 2014.