Loud mouth online retailer Ruslan Kogan, who will do anything for publicity is now offering to pay JB Hi-Fi $1M dollars if by 2014 they are still selling Apple products.
What is not known is whether Kogan will be in business himself by 2014 with some betting that he won’t.
Kogan, was this time last week, claiming that Apple is set tp pull the plugs on retailers in Australia and will instead sell products by their own stores. He also said up to 30% of JB Hi Fi sales were from Apple products a claim which JB Hi Fi has denied.
JB Hi Fi has refused to comment on Kogan’s claims however one Sydney based JB Hi Fi manager said “Kogan is a dickhead of the first order and there is every possibility that he and his web site will not be around by 2014. JB Hi Fi is a publically listed Company and all he is doing is using the brand to try and pump up PR for himself”.
“If you’re a JB Hi-Fi shareholder, there are some things you have to know,” said Mr Kogan in a statement. “While they have been a great company over the past 10 years or more and have significantly improved the Australian retail landscape, they are about to lose over 50 per cent of their business to the internet.”
“Considering JB Hi-Fi is a publicly listed company with a lot of mum and dad investors, I think this showed stealth and craft, rather than openness and honesty from Mr Smart, he said.
Kogan who was wrong about Myer setting up a web site out of China is also asking consumers to pay up front for goods made in China in what appears to be a desperate apttempt to generate cashflow so he can actually pay for the goods prior to them being made.
Last week Kogan described the volume of Apple sales at JB Hi-Fi as “a dependency”. He also said
“JB Hi Fi and other bricks-and-mortar retailers are in a lot of trouble from the internet” he said.
During January and February JB Hi Fi is believed to have growen their online sales by over 50%, Growth which is set to hurt Kogan whose web site is selling very few TV sets despite claims that he is Australia’s largest seller of an Australian branded LED and LCD TV. JB Hi Fi sells in a month what Kogan has sold in 3 years according to data released at the recent Kickstart Technology conference.
Already most major brands including the likes of Samsung, LG and Panasonic have refused to supply Kogan who only managed a claimed $14M in revenue last year.
