The eight new JB Home stores are turning over around $3 million each per annum, a figure expected to increase to $5 million as these new outlets mature over the coming financial year. JB Hi-Fi plans to convert 10 more outlets into JB Home stores during FY2014, with a target of 50 by the middle of 2016.
Having reached critical mass in its core markets, consumer electronics and media software, JB Hi-Fi began embarking on an incursion into the $4.6 billion home appliance market during the 2013 financial year, reformatting some of its larger format location to house home appliances, cooking equipment and smalls.
Unlike the group’s Clive Anthony’s stores, which more closely resemble the traditional home appliance store format, JB Home takes the look and feel of JB Hi-Fi and applies it to the appliance market. Features of this model include prominent point-of-sale and tightly packed merchandise in a self-service environment.
Using the figures provided by JB Hi-Fi in its annual report, should all 50 stores be rolled out as planned and achieve their targets, JB Home is set to snare around $250 million, or around 5 per cent of the total market, during the 2017 financial year.
“These stores offer a full range of JB Hi-Fi traditional categories with the addition of whitegoods, cooking and small appliances, and will allow JB Hi-Fi to capture some of the circa $4.6 billion per annum home appliance market,” said the company in its FY2013 annual report.
“The initial ‘trial’ stores have demonstrated how the group can integrate appliance categories within its existing model and maintain the unique JB Hi-Fi brand personality.”
Regarding JB Hi-Fi’s stated plan to roll out another 42 stores over the next three years, the company said “total store numbers will be dependent on the space available in existing stores and the suitability of new store locations”.