By Aimee Chanthadavong
The Australia fuel market, which is currently dominated by Wooloworths and Coles through their shopper docket scheme, is set to get more competitive with Costco announcing it has plans to enter the petrol business.
Costco, which operates warehouses in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra, will open its first Costco Gasoline station at its second Sydney site this November.
In a letter to members titled ‘Costco Crossroads Update, October 2013’, the company said: “We are very excited to have our first Costco Gasoline station at our new location and the infrastructure is almost complete”.
This is expected to bring direct competition to Woolworths and Coles, which have been known to offer up to 40-cents a litre to its customers signed up to their free loyalty card programmes.
Costco on the other hand operates on an annual membership fee of $60 for individuals and $55 for businesses.
The supermarket giants however have recently been scrutinised by the Independent Retailers of Australia and are closely being monitored by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for their escalating petrol discounts that could possibly lead to the lessening of competition in the market.