BUSINESS
Who owns Costco? Shareholders, investors and founders of the warehouse club giant?
The company is approaching 50 years of age and its board of directors still includes the two original co-founders.
CostCo is one of the world’s largest retailers, the third-largest as of 2021. Costco’s business model is centered around the concept of selling a wide variety of products in bulk at low prices. Much of the revenue is generated by membership fees of which there are nearly 128 million worldwide. These factors have made the company one of the largest corporations in the US.
Costco is a publicly traded company, meaning it is owned by its shareholders. There is no single owner.
How publicly owned companies operate
Public companies have shares that are traded on stock exchanges. Anyone can buy shares of the company and these shareholders own a portion of the company.
Public companies have a board of directors elected by shareholders.
The largest shareholders of Costco
According to Investopedia, Craig Jelinek is the largest shareholder in the company and also holds the roles of President and CEO. He owns 333,075 shares of the company, or about 0.08% of all shares.
Charles Munger is second, owning 166,489 shares. Patrick Callans has the third most with 65,361 shares, around 0.01%.
The history of Costco and its shareholders
Costco was founded in 1976 by James Sinegal and Jeffrey Brotman. The first store, originally named Price Club, opened in San Diego, California. Costco as a brand opened in 1983, becoming publicly traded two years later. The two merged in 1993 under the name PriceCostco with a rebranding to the solo CostCo name in 1997 in a large rebrand.