Harvey sales Easter rising. Retailer says Q3 sales were down but rose including Easter trading.
Harvey
Norman third quarter sales fell 11.5% in Oz, it announced this week. Sales in
comparable store basis also fell 8.1% Q3 for the sales period 01 Jan to 31
Mar 2013.
But the retail giant said Australian sales rose 2.1% (3.4% like-for-like) when adjusted for Easter trading to 9th
April compared to the same trading period last year.
The company statement also noted February traded one less day this year compared to the leap
year
in 2012.
Harvey
Norman sales in several other countries also fell including NZ -1.3%, Ireland
-2.9% although rose in Croatia +26% and Northern Ireland +6%.
Global sales totalled $1.28 billion – up 0.6% – and like for like sales rose 2%
But total
Aussie sales for the nine months to March 31 fell by 6%.
The
company also suffered
due to the “stubbornly high” Aussie dollar, it confirmed.
“Even though technology categories continue to be challenged, the market
appears to be stabilising despite the stubbornly high Australian dollar.”
Home
appliances and furniture and bedding continue to perform solidly, the
electronics giant said, which suggests other categories like TV, audio may be
more challenging, with the TV market in particular highly competitive and hit by price deflation, in recent times.
The retailer’s discontinued
Clive Peeters and Rick Hart business also fell by 8.7% on a comparable store
basis.
In the
nine
months to 31 March, Harvey Norman shut 11 stores, opened 6 complexes,
and opened one
Domayne complex.
