 Harvey Norman business is “just steady as she goes”, CEO Katie Page said at the company AGM held on Tuesday, reports AAP.
“We were expecting after the election that there might be some huge jump but there wasn’t” – sentiments echoed in its recent financial statement. However, Page says its New Zealand retail operation was much stronger.
Earlier this month, Harvey’s reported Q1 Australian sales rose just 1.2%, profits up 16.2% to $58.2 million.
But forget electronics, Gerry Harvey is looking to housing to boost profits, as electronics retail growth looks static, for now.
Gerry Harvey said the company was looking for other ways to grow its business, including building apartments on its existing properties.
“Because we’ve got such a lot of properties there are some things we can do to make them more profitable,” he said.
“There are a number of properties we can build residential towers on, that will probably happen.”
Earlier this month he noted real estate was flying high.
“Consumer confidence is higher…but it hasn’t translated into better business, now that wouldn’t be right if you spoke to real estate agents selling houses and units at the moment.”
Harvey Norman has a consolidated property portfolio worth $2.25 billion as at 30 June last, although announced a property re-evaluation decrement of $60m – its second in two years.
Harvey has also been in the news this week, complaining of the unfairness of the GST threshold of $1,000 on overseas online purchases.
Harvey Norman directors including Katie Page, David Ackery, John Evyn Slack-Smith, were also re-elected following this week’s AGM.
Shares were up 0.31% to $3.220 on the ASX today.
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