Retail group Harvey Norman has announced an increase in profits of 3.6% on revenues of 6.03 Million. Helping the group has been a significant lift in demand for consumer technology and IT products.
On a quarterly basis, sales from the franchised “Harvey Norman” stores, commercial divisions and other sales outlets in Australia, New Zealand, Slovenia and Ireland (excluding Singapore), totalled $1.49 billion for the fourth quarter ended 30 June 2009. When compared to sales for the period 1 April 2008 to 30 June 2008, the increase was 4.5%.
Harvey Norman said that sales from the franchised “Harvey Norman” stores, commercial divisions and other sales outlets in Australia, New Zealand, Slovenia and Ireland (excluding Singapore) totalled $6.03 billion for the year ended 30 June 2009 compared to $5.81 billion for the year ended 30 June 2008, an increase of 3.8Million.
Like for like sales for the year ended 30 June 2009, when compared to the year ended 30 June 2008, have increased by 1.4%.
Like for like sales for the fourth quarter ended 30 June 2009, when compared to the same corresponding quarter ended 30 June 2008, increased by 2.0%.
In Australia, for the fourth quarter ended 30 June 2009, sales from the franchised “Harvey Norman” complexes, commercial divisions and other sales outlets increased by 6.7% when compared to the same corresponding quarter ended 30 June 2008. Like for like sales for the fourth quarter ended 30 June 2009 when compared to the same corresponding quarter ended 30 June 2008increased by 5%.
Given the current macroeconomic conditions, retail margins continue to be under pressure said a Harvey Norman executive.
Like for like sales in the third quarter of 2009 rose 3.9% with same store sales rising 3% for the 4th quarter to June 30th. Shares in Harvey Norman were trading at $3.40 prior to the current announcement.
Still suffering is the company’s Irish operations which earlier this year got a $35M capital injection, yet despite this they are still a drag on the company’s overall performance said Macquarie analyst Greg Dring.
Adding to the company’s cost has been the closure of several stores in Australia due to poor performance.
Arch rival JB Hi-Fi said last month that they expect to exceed profit expectations for FY09 by 41 percent.
JB Hi-Fi expects its profit for the year ending 30 June 2009 to be approximately $92 million net profit after tax, a 41 percent increase on the prior year of $65.1 million. Sales are forecast to be around $2.3 billion or a 26 percent increase on the prior year.
Morgan Stanley analyst, Richard Barwick, predicted that Harvey Norman would book a net profit of around $208 million, after fellow retailers such as JB Hi-Fi and Myer recently delivered positive updates to the market.
Harvey Norman CEO Gerry Harvey said “The market looks a lot better than it did this time last year when we were talking about Armageddon”.
