By Grant Shepherd
Harvey Norman Limited has released its sales results for the six month period ending 31 December 2009. Sales across the Australian division of the company were up 6.4 per cent for the period.
According to the report issued to the Australian Securities Exchange, sales from the franchised Harvey Norman complexes, commercial divisions and other sales outlets in Australia, New Zealand, Slovenia and Ireland (excluding Singapore) totalled $3.27 billion for the six month period. This is a four per cent increase when compared to the same period last year.
Like-for-like sales also saw a rise in comparison to the same period ending 31 December 2008, with a 2.5 per cent growth.
In terms of local news, Harvey Norman Australia saw a 6.4 per cent increase in sales and 5.6 per cent increase on a like-for-like basis. When you break down the results by quarter, the retailer saw a 5.8 per cent increase in sales for Q1 and a 6.8 per cent increase in Q2. On a like-for-like basis growth was at 4.6 per cent for Q1 and 6.5 per cent for Q2.
Chris Mentis, chief financial officer at Harvey Norman commented on the results and the future outlook of the company.
“Sales for the month of January 2010 have met managements’ expectations and we remain cautiously optimistic about the next five months despite the positive impact of the cash stimulus payments injected into the economy last year,” said Mentis.
“Unaudited preliminary accounts for the period 1 July 2009 to 31 December 2009 indicate that profit before tax and minority interest for the consolidated entity for the six months ended 31 December 2009 should exceed the profit before tax and minority interests in respect to the corresponding period for the previous year, by in excess of 40 per cent.”