The furnishings and electronics big has mentioned shoppers might be forking out as a lot as 30 per cent extra for items in coming months.
Harvey Norman boss Gerry Harvey has warned the price of electronics, home equipment and furnishings might rise between 5 and 30 per cent as transport prices skyrocket.
The 82-year-old, who’s the retailer’s govt chairman, mentioned the worth of transport and logistics had soared, leading to merchandise turning into dearer.
“Delivery containers used to value $2000, now it’s $12,000 and the costs in your lounge go up by 10 per cent to twenty per cent,” he instructed the Sydney Morning Herald.
“You identify it, it doesn’t matter what product you are available to purchase right this moment, it’s dearer than yesterday, and will probably be dearer once more tomorrow. Costs are going up by 5, 10, 30 per cent.”
Large delays in getting inventory from abroad corresponding to China was additionally inflicting complications, however the retailer revealed the corporate had arrange 50 new warehouses across the nation over the past 18 months to carry extra inventory.
Harvey declared the times of ultra-cheap electronics and furnishings have been over, in response to the Australian Monetary Overview, however mentioned clients might nonetheless nab a deal.
“Prospects are coming into our shops in the meanwhile, and we’ve nonetheless received loads of merchandise which are priced lots cheaper than what we are able to purchase it for in the meanwhile, so we are able to deal a bit on worth,” he instructed the AFR.
Harvey Norman skilled its first drop in gross sales and earnings for the reason that begin of the pandemic, with whole gross sales for the six months to the top of December down 6.2 per cent to $4.9 billion with lockdowns blamed for the end result.
The retail boss mentioned he would have been completely satisfied break even after retailer closures in the course of the Delta outbreak prompted Harvey Norman to take a success, whereas there have been fears over the arrival of Omicron.
However he mentioned commerce has been robust up to now three months.
In December, whitegoods, televisions and small home equipment have been well-liked, whereas for the primary fours months of the monetary yr its bestsellers included computer systems, displays, printers and webcams as a result of working from residence.
“We now have began off very effectively in January/February, which is stronger than we thought,” Harvey added.
“There’s no motive to consider at this stage it’s going to change, and if it doesn’t, we can have fairly a superb second half.”
Initially revealed as Harvey Norman boss indicators finish to low cost electronics and furnishings