By Chris Nicholls
SYDNEY: Harvey Norman has released slow growth figures for the past ten months, in keeping with chairman and director Gerry Harvey’s warnings yesterday, revealed exclusively on Current.com.au.
The results, delayed for a month to draw a clearer picture of sales numbers, showed slower growth year-on-year than the same 2007 report, with total group sales (excluding Singapore) to 30 April 2008 of $4.82 billion and 10.1 per cent growth, year-on-year.
Back in 2007, while only compared to the nine months to 31 March 2006, sales grew 16.8 per cent year-on-year to $3.98 billion.
Like for like sales growth also fell, with a 5.2 per cent increase over the past ten months, compared with an 8.3 per cent rise for the nine months to 31 March 2006.
Results for the extended quarter (four months to 30 April 2008) did not fare any better, with total sales (again, excluding Singapore) of $1.78 billion. This was up 6.4 per cent on the previous ten months to 30 April 2007 but slow compared to the nine months to 31 March 2006, when growth exceeded 17 per cent, year on year.
Harvey gave hints yesterday that the results would not match those of the recent past, when he told Current.com.au that, “Business is not that easy at the moment” and that while July to December was “pretty good”, “January to June is not going to be nearly as good.”