The Australian newspaper claims that Gerry Harvey has indicated cuts to the company's advertising and marketing budget will be as high as $60 million a year.

Reporting an 18% downturn in profitability due mostly by the poor performance of their Irish operation Gerry Harvey said that the company would be forced to cut its marketing budget by at least 20 per cent.

When contacted by The Australian yesterday, Mr Harvey indicated this would mean tens of millions in cuts. Asked about the current size of Harvey Norman's total marketing budget, Mr Harvey said: "It would be at least $300 million internationally." The cuts to this figure would be "across the board", both in Australia and overseas.

The Australian report that according to Nielsen Media's AdEx survey for the 2007-08 year Harvey Norman spent between $125 million and $130 million on advertising in Australia, making it the country's second-largest retail advertiser. This implies that in Australia alone, the company is slashing more than $25 million from its budget.