Just five years after hitting rock bottom, Harvey’s Irish business is looking good.
Harvey Norman chief executive Katie Page (pictured), has told The Australian that the Irish economic recovery is driving healthy appliance sales and she expects this to continue in 2016.
“The Irish economy bottomed out three years ago and it has come back strongly,” she said, adding that, “Our business there is in line with what is happening with the economy. Next year is predicted to be particularly strong.”
Page has recently returned from Europe where she inspected the company’s operations in Croatia and Slovenia which also had been held back by the slow growth in the European economy.
Harvey Norman owns five stores in Slovenia and one in Croatia which generated $95.5m in the 2015 financial year and pre-tax profits of just under $3m.
However, she was more circumspect regarding the operations in Slovenia and Croatia which she described as “doing OK. It is not fantastic but it is OK. We are looking forward to Ireland and Europe continuing to grow in 2016.”
Meanwhile, Harvey Norman’s sales in Singapore, where it has operated since 2000, are also expected to grow following the opening of a new flagship store in the island state.
The new store in Singapore’s Millenia Walk has an area of 9300sq m, more than double the size of its former flagship store in the city.
Harvey Norman now has 17 stores in Singapore and another 13 in Malaysia.
The Asian operations, which turned over $395m in the financial year to June 2015, suffered a loss of $6m in the last financial year, double the loss of the previous year.
So far sales from the new store in Singapore were “going particularly well”, Page said.
“We are really happy with its performance so far,” she said.
Much like the attitude to the Irish business which saw many naysayers calling for it to be closed, Page said that Harvey Norman’s business in Asia was “a long-term play”.
“It is part of our strategy of having an Asian footprint.”
Harvey Norman will release more details of the financial performance of its international operations, which also include businesses in New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Croatia and Slovenia, when it makes its half yearly report in February.