$18.2m follower assets
Power behind Costco’s private label brand, Kirkland Signature
$59 billion+: Total 2021 sales of Kirkland Signature brands, a 13.5% change from last year. Costco’s $COST total revenues for 2021 equaled $192 billion, a year-over-year increase of 18%. Kirkland is the biggest consumer packaged goods brand in the US by sales, larger than Hershey $HSY, Campbell Soup $CPB, or Kellogg $K, per CNN.
31%: Kirkland Signature’s percentage of Costco sales, per RetailWire. Online, Costco carries 125 private label SKUs, which represent 8.1% of total SKUs.
$75 billion: Kirkland Signature’s valuation in 2019, according to UBS, per Insider. According to the Private Label Manufacturing Association, private label sales have grown nearly 40% from 2019 to 2021, so that $75 billion valuation is likely more.
15% to 20%: How much less Kirkland Signature products cost than branded alternatives, according to Jim Sinegal, co-founder and former CEO at Costco. According to an EY survey from October 2021, 58% of respondents are more focused on value than they were pre-pandemic.
89.7%: The percentage of US adults who cited better value as the reason they switched from a national brand to a private label brand. Other reasons include better assortment/selection (52.0%), deal/membership rewards offered with purchase (47.9%), and national brand was not available (41.1%).
Amazing.
This is unfortunately one of those companies that I am fascinated by, and seems like an obvious buy -- but have never gotten around to making it a holding.
May change that soon after seeing this data laid out . 🙏🙏