Unlike in the past, Harvey Norman has chosen to release a video to the market ahead of their AGM as they move to qualify their global results, which in the last quarter saw revenues increase 1.4% compared with same three-month period last year.
The global retailer reported a 1.7% rise in aggregated sales for the quarter ending October 2024.
Between 1 July 2024 to 31 October 2024, Australian franchisees’ sales increased 3.2% but shrunk 8.6% in New Zealand where JB Hi-Fi is gaining share.
In an unusual move, Harvey Norman chose to use a glossy video fronted by CEO Katie Page to spruik their international operations which appear to be propping up their Australian operations.
Click image to watch video.
Management claimed the business was hurt by depreciation in the Euro, New Zealand and Singaporean dollars, but helping was the appreciation of the UK Pound and the Malaysian Ringgit.
Following recent new stores, the business now consists of 120 company-operated stores across eight countries, and 198 franchised stores.
A new contribution is revenue from their new 5,295 square meter, store in the UK’s West Midlands. At this stage, it’s not known how big a contribution this store will make to overall revenue.
The company claimed that its 100,000 sq ft store in Singapore’s Millenia Walk attracts more than 700,000 visitors annually.
In Australia, the company claimed that two new franchised stores were opened, located at Macgregor in Queensland and Melton in Victoria in the last quarter, and another franchised operation was relocated from a leasehold site to a freehold property.
Earlier this year, Harvey Norman reported a 34.7% slide in FY24 full-year net profits to $352.45 million.
Total sales for the group fell 3.6% to $8.862 billion from $9.19 billion in FY 23.
Earlier today HN shares rose 2.82% with the stock up 17.54% year to date.
Retail Analysts Citi, claimed that Harvey Norman’s local sales growth of 3.3% was down on the forecast of 3.7%.
“While we are cautious on the comparison given the different trading period, it does appear Harvey Norman Australia has underperformed The Good Guys,” says Citi analyst Adrian Lemme.
“However, we note November is not included in the update period and continue to expect that more consumers are holding out for the all-important Black Friday sales.”
