By Chris Nicholls
FRANKSTON, VIC: Harvey Norman will enter the Mornington Peninsula market late next year when it moves into a new shopping centre behind Frankston’s McMahon’s Road complex but The Good Guys store manager in Frankston said it will not affect his sales.
The new centre, expected to open to the public before Christmas 2008, will sit behind the current McMahon’s Road complex, which houses competitors The Good Guys and JB Hi-Fi.
The Good Guys Frankston store manager Ben Wylie said they would also move into the complex when completed, and did not feel the arrival of the Harvey Norman store would not have a negative impact on their sales. On the contrary, it would “probably increase sales,” he said.
Wylie said the move would give them an extra 8,000 square metres of interior space.
JB Hi-Fi Frankston’s second in charge Simon Cooper also said Harvey Norman’s arrival would have a positive effect on the business.
Wylie said Christmas sales were strong, with “pretty much everything” selling.
“There’s definitely a push on plasmas and LCD,” he said. Satellite navigation system sales were also strong and total store sales over 15 per cent higher year-on-year, he said.
Contrary to the trend in other parts of the country, Victoria’s spell of warm weather at the end of last month meant “very good” air conditioner sales, that pushed the store above last year’s sales.