Costco sets goal of 150 new stores in five years

NEW YORK —Costco Wholesale Corp. is looking to open approximately 150 locations over the next five years, CFO Richard Galanti said on the company’s quarterly conference call with investors.

“And if we get a little better than that, great,” he added. “But that’s certainly a good starting point given where we’ve come over the last few years.”

Of the total, about 55 of the new units would be in the United States, with the rest located in Canada or foreign markets.

To date, for the first three quarters of its current fiscal year, Coscto has opened 19 locations, with plans to open nine in its current fourth quarter, for a total of 28 for the full year. “As compared to fiscal ’12’s expansion of about 3% in square footage growth, this year’s 28 units, on a beginning base of 608 would be about 4.5%,” Galanti said.

For its third quarter, which ended May 12, Costco’s net income rose 18.9% to $459 million. Sales rose 7.8% to $23.6 billion.