By Chris Nicholls
SYDNEY: Harvey Norman has confirmed it will close its Joyce Mayne Dubbo store in country New South Wales, saying it had failed to compete against the stronger Harvey Norman brand in the same town.
Harvey Norman executive director, David Ackery, said the store would close by the end of August, subject to remaining stock sales rates, due to its poor performance.
“The Harvey Norman in Dubbo is one of our best performing regional stores. The Joyce Maybe store, quite frankly, hasn’t cut the mustard, so we’re going to just concentrate on the Harvey Norman offering in town,” he said.
The Joyce Mayne store was previously a Retravision, purchased by Harvey Norman in November 2006 as part of a larger buyout of several NSW Retravision stores, more than half of which became Joyce Mayne outlets.
“When we converted those Retravision stores to Joyce Mayne, the majority of them have been extremely successful. But a couple of them, from time to time [go under],” said Ackery.
He said Harvey Norman had “given it [the Dubbo store] every possible opportunity but the Harvey Norman store there is just so strong.”
The two stores are close geographically, but Ackery said while proximity of location may have played a part, the Harvey Norman brand was simply “too strong” in Dubbo to compete against.
He said the Joyce Main shop would be leased again.
While Harvey Norman chairman Gerry Harvey told the Australian Financial Review recently that “some more” store closures were on the cards, Ackery only said “there may be” store closures as part of regular reviews, and would only be “one or two tops”.
On a more positive note, Ackery echoed Harvey’s recent comments on the ABC’s Lateline Business program that TiVo sales had been going well.
“There’s been a lot of activity and a lot of enquiry about it [TiVo],” he said.
“I’m very happy with the numbers that we’ve punched out so far, and it’s only going to improve.”