Further confirmation yesterday that the retail boom continues.
The country’s leading furniture and electrical retailer, Harvey Norman, revealed that sales in its third quarter and the nine months to March, were running at close the best this year, with the most important retail measure, comparable or same store sales, at their highest.
The news added to the recent oomph in the HVN share price and pushed it back over $5 to close at an all time high of $5.02.
Citing strong sales in audio visual and IT areas, Harvey Norman said top line sales roseto $1.28 billion, 17.2 per cent above the same quarter of the 2006 financial year.
(The figure included sales from the franchised Harvey Norman stores, commercial divisions and other sales outlets in Australia, New Zealand, Slovenia and Ireland but not Singapore or Rebel Sport which was sold in March to a private equity group.)
Comparable or like-for-like sales for the third quarter increased by 10.8 per cent, the highest rate so far and above the strong 8.2 per cent in the first quarter and the 8.3 per cent for the first half of the year.
Sales in the nine months to March rose 16.8 per cent to a total of $3.98 billion while comparable store sales rose 8.3 per cent while first half sales were $2.71 billion, up 16.7 per cent and comparable store sales were 7.1 per cent higher.
The news will add to the feeling that retailing is doing very well at the moment and with so much of his fast moving consumer electronics business sourced from overseas, Gerry Harvey’s company is likely to get a substantial boost from the rising Australian dollar, should it trade around current levels of 82.50 USc or higher over the next quarter.
In fact others in the same business, such as Clive Peeters (CPR) should also get a boost from the appreciating dollar (it will be making the buyout of Myer look better as well).
But in contrast to the performance by HVN shares, Clive Peeters, a smaller, Melbourne based competitor, saw its shares dip 4c to $3.36 yesterday, compared to a recent all time high of $3.50.
