By James Wells

SYDNEY: Harvey Norman has issued a statement announcing the closure of the Joyce Mayne store at Mt Druitt effective from this Sunday, following the previously-announced acquisition of the business by Clive Peeters.

“The franchisees, Greg Hartnett, Gary Reznikov and David Chai operating the Joyce Mayne location at Mt Druitt have decided to close this location as at 22nd October, 2006,” said the Harvey Norman statement obtained by Current.com.au.

“We will continue to process payments on the franchisees’ behalf until Friday 20 October, 2006 after which all invoices and credit claims will need to be directed to the franchisees and their accountant. Please ensure that no Harvey Norman or Joyce Mayne pricing is supplied to them after this date. Joyce Mayne will not reopen in the current location. At this time there are no plans to seek another site in Mt Druitt,” the statement said.

Two weeks ago, Clive Peeters issued a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange announcing that it has acquired the business conducted by Hartrez Pty Ltd which owned the Joyce Mayne store within the Westfield Shopping Centre at Mt Druitt.

“This is a very strategic acquisition for us, being our fourth Sydney store, which gives us a strong metropolitan base, achieved in just six months,” Clive Peeters managing director, Greg Smith said in a statement at the time of the announcement.

“The fourth store improves the leveraging of our advertising and warehouse costs in Sydney, which together account for most of our high cost of entry into the New South Wales market,” Smith said.

“We have quickly established a strong launching pad in New South Wales – the biggest market in Australia. We are actively looking for more stores in Sydney as we target a 12 store network in Sydney with up to a further eight in regional New South Wales. This may take us some years to achieve, but we are now well on our way.”