5 days Ago By David Richards
Harvey Norman, who is on a mission to build their profile in the UK, with the Austrsalian retailer out spruiking UK media in an effort to be taken seriously as the new kid on the block, they have also revealed that they are close to signing a deal for a second store in Sutton Coalfield. Despite 15 years operating in Northern the move into the UK is being seen by observers as “A tougher gig” claims observers. “Ireland is a small market and when they went into Ireland there was little competition.
The UK is a whole different market” claims a current Curry’s executive. Retail Gazette in the UK claims that “there is method in their madness” after they set up in Dudley in the UK’s West Midlands. “This has definitely been a market that we’ve wanted to get into for a little while,” claims Harvey Norman UK managing director Lachlan Roach.
He admits that that although management spent time searching the UK for a location and fearing another Bunnings disaster that cost the Company over $1 billion dollars, Harvey Norman apparently searched all across the country, “density for us was a big thing, and then diverse population was very important because it allows us to demonstrate a range of different products with different tastes”. He said that Dudley in the West Midlands is “literally four hours” away from anywhere in the country “from a logistics standpoint”. He admits that a second store close to being signed, size has not been announced.
Roach described the Companies Australian business as being “a little bit of John Lewis, a little bit of Currys, a little bit of Sofology, a little bit of Bensons or Dreams”. “It’s a combination of a few of them, because no one does the four categories in Great Britain anymore in this way,” he adds. The Merry Hill store – which Roach notes is one of the smallest of the brand’s eight global flagships – houses a range of furniture such as sofas, dining sets, bedroom suites and mattresses, alongside an assortment of home appliances, technology, and entertainment products from big brands including Miele, Samsung, Apple and Dyson.
He claims that Harvey Norman “really tries and helps people create rooms”. He says people may come in for a mattress but can “walk out with the whole room”. Harvey Norman prides itself on having an “offering for everybody”.
Roach says: “We build these stores...
which definitely has a focus on that mid [price point] with a flare to the upper, but our best sellers, unsurprisingly, are always in that entry to midpoint where a lot of customers are comfortable to shop in.” He claims that the Australian retailer has set their UK stores up to be in effect “Two separate home and technology stores within the one unit”, which is the way that they sell in Australia. Standing in the quieter home furnishings side of the store, Roach explains: “We do intentionally create a different shopping environment out here, out of the sort of hustle and bustle of technology and entertainment.
” “We find people like to shop in different ways. Customers are doing more and more research so there’s less people coming in that don’t know what they’d like to buy in a certain category,” says Roach. Small domestic appliances have also been categorized by purpose, divided into coffee and breakfast sections to separate the De’Longhi espresso machine from the Russell Hobbs toasters and kettles.
Harvey Norman seems to sell most things, but shoppers won’t find anything own-brand in the store. “We don’t do any of our own brands. Everything is from a manufacturer,” says Roach.
“We don’t build a thing...
we build a great store to showcase what the brands do. “These brands spend millions and millions of pounds in design, research, marketing and partnerships so we push the brands as hard as we can to come up with great new products to bring to the market he claims in the Retail Gazette interview. “When we did our research on the area, the West Midlands stood out to us,” he says, explaining “we can get to a lot of people really quickly, which should help us with brand awareness and getting more people through the store”.
“If you think about the density of the West Midlands compared to New Zealand...
the West Midlands region is around 5 million people. We’ve got 46 stores in New Zealand for about 5 million people and then in Ireland, we’ve got 16 stores to about 5.2 million people.
” However, Roach sees more opportunities in the West Midlands and admits Harvey Norman is close to securing its second location near its UK head office in Sutton Coldfield. “Then, we ideally would like to have a look around the southern part of Birmingham for that triangle kind of effect,” he says. Roach is pretty tight-lipped about the company’s plans for the rest of the UK and insists that Harvey Norman will not rush into any aggressive expansion plans any time soon.
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