- Ron Vachris is the third CEO in Costco’s history and a company lifer who is now pushing the wholesale club to higher revenues. During his 40+ years at Costco, Vachris rose from teenage forklift driver to CEO, and helped push the company’s revenue up 5% year-over-year in fiscal 2024 to $254 billion.
A little more than one year into Ron Vachris’ tenure leading Costco, he is already supercharging the company’s revenue.
At No. 12 on the Fortune 500, Costco stands above notable companies such as Microsoft, Chevron, and Bank of America. The company’s full-year revenue of $254 billion jumped 5% from the same time last year, and Vachris was instrumental to the company’s success.
Vachris began his career as a forklift driver in his teens for Price Club, which Costco merged with in 1993. Only the third CEO in Costco history, he is a true company lifer with more than 40 years of experience at the wholesale club.
During that time, he has guided the company in a number of positions including operations chief, merchandising chief, and head of real estate, Fortune previously reported. As chief executive, Vachris was awarded a $12.2 million compensation package, including a base salary of $1.1 million and $10.5 million in stock awards and some perks such as a free executive Costco membership.
In the vein of longtime former CEO Jim Sinegal, Vachris likes to take a more hands-off approach to leadership, trusting employees to perform well and even innovate.
“You’ve got to give people room to try new things,” Vachris previously told Fortune.
That approach has paid off with new ideas from outside of the C-suite. For example, employees were the first to suggest the company could repurpose leftover rotisserie chicken for their chicken salads.
In the future, Vachris is looking to tackle two areas where the company sees opportunity: international expansion and improving ecommerce and technology. On the company’s most recent earnings call in late May, Vachris said Costco recently launched buy-now-pay-later capabilities on its website, and also touted the healthy year-over-year growth of the company’s Costco Next program, which lets consumers buy name brands at affordable prices.
Costco is also testing a new initiative, first introduced by competitor Sam’s Club, that allows customers to scan items and check out easily using their phone.
“Digital and technology are important parts of our future growth, and we are investing to improve the member experience,” Vachris said on the company’s third-quarter earnings call.
