By James Wells
SYDNEY: A flat panel TV supplier has labelled the Australian market as “over retailed and under populated” and “like no other market in the world” which has contributed to razor thin margins in the highly competitive consumer electronics category.
An executive who heads up one of Philips’ direct competitors in the flat panel category said that overseas executives are constantly surprised at the conditions which exist in the Australian market which create a difficult market to make margin.
“The Australian market is just too hard,” he said.
“It is like no other market in the world – it is over retailed and under populated and simply too large as a country in geographical terms. It is a combination of many factors that are no experienced anywhere else in the world including freight costs as well as excessive retail competition leading to discounting.”