Costco's competitors object to Sydney location

US discount warehouse chain Costco’s plans to open its second Australian outlet have been disrupted by claims from rival shopping centre owners that its proposed development in Sydney is illegal.

In a raft of objections, the protesting group - which includes Westfield, AMP and the Shopping Centre Council of Australia – said the proposed store is in breach of existing state planning laws, is “inappropriate” and that to create any special exemptions would be "anti-competitive" for other retailers.

Following reports of the competitors’ objections, media websites were inundated with comments from members of the public supporting the arrival of Costco and denouncing the lack of major competition in the Sydney retail market.

The $60m development, in an industrial area of Auburn in Sydney’s west, takes in a vast 463sq km "main trade area" and hopes to follow Costco’s successful opening in Melbourne’s Docklands last year, achieved with the help of the Victorian Government.

Costco Australia managing director Patrick Noone admitted the proposal did not fit into existing New South Wales planning laws but the company hoped to get approval by re-defining itself as a "bulk goods retailer".

In its planning report to the NSW Government, Costco explained why alternative retail precincts close to the proposed location – at Parramatta, Auburn, Lidcombe, Rhodes and Sydney Olympic Park - were unsuitable.

Costco also considered several other ‘lower category’ sites, also deemed unsuitable, at Marion Street, Auburn; East Street, Lidcome; 229 Roberts Road, Greenacre; 105-111 Wattle Street, Punchbowl; 457 Waterloo Road, Chullora; 2 Morton Street, Parramatta; Victoria Road/ Macarthur Street, Parramatta; Oxford Street and Woodville Road, Guildford and Parramatta Road, Granville.

JB Hi-Fi feeling the pinch

JB Hi-Fi’s long-running spell of record revenues looks like coming to end, according to a report in The Sydney Morning Herald.

After a recent meeting with Terry Smart (JB’s CEO-in-waiting following the retirement of Richard Uechtritz) an investment group told its clients that JB had a “cautious” outlook on trading with only moderate growth in comparable store sales.

JB will announce its full-year profit guidance in June.

Camera House lays it on the line in Langkawi

Camera House members are trickling  back home after the group’s half-year meeting, held at the Westin Langkawi Resort in Malaysia.

While the group reported a healthy increase in profits in the previous half-year, trading has reportedly slowed down in recent months.

Camera House general manager Paul Shearer told a recent photo industry meeting in Sydney that the group, which is moving towards a ‘franchisee’ rather than ‘member’ structure, will have a much stronger marketing program in 2010 to “give consumers a reason” to invest further in photo imaging products.