While publicly listed Harvey Norman franchisor business relies considerably on revenues from its subordinate franchisee sales, the operation also owns a significant property portfolio and a number of direct stores.<\/p>\n
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And it all seems to be going better than expected. With the franchise operations taken into account, the company currently has 213 stores across the globe and plans to maintain its aggressive roll-out of new Harvey Norman, Domayne and Joyce Mayne stores across Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Ireland and Slovenia.<\/p>\n
<\/font>Counting all the stores together with the exception of Rebel Sports and the Like for like sales which does not account for revenues coming from new stores increased by 6.5 per cent. During the six months to 31 December 2005, eleven new complexes opened in Profit for the six months beat market expectations with a net profit after tax and minority interests, calculated in accordance with AIFRS, increased from $111.28 million for the six months ended 31 December 2004, to $131.86 million for the six months ended 31 December 2005, an increase of 18.49 per cent according to the company.<\/font><\/p>\n This well and truly beat reported analyst forecasts averaging around $102 million. <\/font><\/p>\n Franchise fees, rent and interest received from franchisees increased by $27.75 million, an increase of 8.6 per cent over the previous corresponding period.<\/font><\/p>\n Flushed with cash the Directors have recommended an interim fully franked dividend of 4.0c per share be paid on 8 May 2006 to shareholders registered at 5.00 pm, 19 April 2006.<\/font><\/p>\n While furniture remained a strong seller it is consumer electronics and computers that are the driving force behind the company’s continued growth Chairman Gerry Harvey said the company had seen no signs of a consumer slowdown except for weaknesses in some segments caused by high petrol prices. Demand for plasma and LCD televisions, personal computers, DVD recorders and portable media players continued to deliver improved revenue and overall market share, he said.<\/font><\/p>\n Of particular interest is the company’s test case for a converged AV\/IT style store which it opened at Sydney’s Castle Hill in October last year. While publicly listed Harvey Norman franchisor business relies considerably on revenues from its subordinate franchisee sales, the operation also owns a significant property portfolio and a number of direct stores.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,658],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","hentry","category-archive","category-credit","post_format-gallery"],"yoast_head":"\n