By Craig Zammit

SYDNEY: The first two Retravision franchises to be converted into Joyce Mayne stores, located in New South Wales at Wallsend and Dubbo, will both open their doors this week for the first time since changing branding to Joyce Mayne. 

The new converts will be Joyce Mayne’s fifth and sixth stores in Australia with the Wallsend store officially re-opening today and the Dubbo store set to open on Friday 1 December.

“We have a three brand strategy in Australia – Harvey Norman, Domayne and Joyce Mayne, and the Wallsend store fits perfectly into our Joyce Mayne business model,” Harvey Norman chief operating officer, John Slack-Smith, told current.com.au today.

“We think they are going to be a positive contributor to both the Joyce Mayne business and the overall group.”

Slack-Smith confidently discussed the new additions to the Joyce Mayne family and spoke of the Wallsend team, which has been fully retained from its Retravision days, with high regard.

“We’ve been particularly pleased over the last week – the Wallsend team has worked extremely hard. We’ve been very impressed with the team and the way they’ve come together over while changing the brand to Joyce Mayne.

“We think they’ve got a very bright future within our group. We don’t have specific expectations outside that at this point in time, but we are very glad that they’re onboard,” said Slack-Smith.

When questioned as to the possibility of Joyce Mayne further extending its wings and recruiting more Retravision stores, Slack-Smith was not giving anything away.

“[There are] no further expectations of stores at this point in time, but with the way the market is at the moment you never know.”

Citigroup analyst, Craig Woolford, was recently quoted in the Australian Financial Review as saying that Joyce Mayne was likely to be used as a discounter to defend its market share against competitors such as The Good Guys, Betta Electrical, Chandlers and independently branded Narta stores including JB Hi-Fi, which has announced it will be increasing its presence in regional areas over the next 12 months.