Surging retail sales put JB Hi-Fi on top
JB Hi Fi and The Good Guys chief executive Richard Murray says print media is still a great way to engage with customers to get them spending money in his stores.
Mr Murray was speaking following the JB Hi Fi group’s annual profit announcement, where the company reported a 42.3 per cent increase in sales to $5.6 billion for the year.
The electronics and whitegoods retailer bought The Good Guys for $870 million in November last year and says it is expecting to reduce its costs of doing business quicker than previously forecast.
Net profit for the year to June 30 rose 13.3 per cent to $172.4 million when compared to the year prior and underlying profit, which strips out one off costs, increased 36.5 per cent to $207.7 million.
Mr Murray said advertising and marketing played a key role for the JB Hi Fi group, with print media being one of the retailer’s main ways of engaging with customers.
“We still believe that catalogue inserts or physical press ads are a good way to communicate with readers. All our marketing assets need to be efficient and productive and we still find catalogue inserts and press advertisements relevant,” he said.
“There is marketing that obviously tries to communicate the depth of range which catalogues do and there’s other marketing initiatives which are driving a call to action like a press ad, and we think the combination is powerful.”
At JB Hi Fi’s Australian outlets sales increased by 10.9 per cent to $4.15 billion and comparable store sales were up 8.6 per cent.
Hardware and services sales were up 14.4 per cent, driven by comparable sales growth of 11.9 per cent across a number of products, including phones, stereos, cameras, computers and appliances.
Mr Murray said there was great competition in the mobile phone market between Google and Samsung, which was helping drive sales.
“Nowadays when a consumer’s phone breaks they immediately purchase a new one but also the upgrade cycle is faster than it ever was before,” he said.
Sales at The Good Guys since the business was acquired on November 28 last year were up 0.2 per cent to $1.26 billion, with comparable sales down 1.3 per cent.
Key growth categories at The Good Guys included cooking appliances, televisions, fridges and white goods.