JB Hi-Fi has high hopes for its sales results in the financial year of 2012 despite reporting that comparable store sales growth was a negative 1.2 per cent for the financial year of 2011 ending at 30 June 2011.
The consumer electronics retailer expects its circa to be $3.2 billion, an 8 per cent increase on the prior year in the financial year of 2012.
This comes following the company reported full year net profit after tax (NPAT) of $134.4 million, which is up for 118.7 million in the financial year of 2010, while total sales growth was 8.3 per cent for the ended 30 June 2011.
CEO Terry Smart said the period was a testament of the strength of the company.
“In the last 12 months we have returned over $260 million to our shareholders, through dividends and our off-market share buy-back,” he said.
The company opened a total of 18 new stores (15 in Australia, 3 in New Zealand) and converted four Clive Anthonys stores to JB Hi-Fi stores. This brought the total retail footprint to 157 stores at 30 June 2011 but the company targets to have 214 stores over the next four to five years.
Online sales grew 51.6 per cent over the full year and were up 68.1 per cent in the second half.
According to Smart, the online site is increasingly an important sales generator for its online and offline sales.
“Our buying power and low cost of doing business will ensure we maintain our competitive online offer. We continue to enhance the customer online experience with the introduction of a mobile friendly website to browse, explore and transact online, combined with a new gift card module which enables our customers to activate and manage their JB Hi-Fi Gift Cards online We will shortly enhance the offer further with the additional convenience of being able to order online and pick-up in store,” he said.
JB Hi-Fi anticipates launching a new music subscription streaming service in the second quarter of the financial year of 2012.
The company said the service will be a natural extension to its current physical music sales. A staged roll-out is anticipated over the quarter for Mac and PC, with a mobile solution to be added shortly.
“We intend to have between six to eight million tracks from 100,000 artists at a launch and will continue to grow this number over time. The service will allow for unlimited access and listening to music from your Mac, PC or mobile device,” Smart said.