In a frank and open discussion Gerry Harvey the Billionaire head of Harvey Norman has talked for the first time about his troubled childhood, growing up in the bush and his first selling experiences.
He has also talked about his “wrongful convictions” for bait advertising and his hatred of former ACCC boss Alan Fells. AUDIO FILE INCLUDED.
He has also admitted that he is out of Rebel Sports and now on the lookout, for new investments but could “One day buy back into” the Sports Retailer if the new owners have problems.
Starting life in the NSW bush Gerry Harvey came from a family with money however he admits that his father got little of that money as he was “Scoundrel” who ended up broke resulting in his family struggling each week to survive.
Living in a garage with an extension he left school at 15 only to go back after securing a scholarship. Working in a bank during the day and studying for University at night he very quickly worked out that this was not going to reward him enough. At the time the average wage was $8.00 a week.
He was then offered a job as a door to door salesman. Firstly selling vacuum cleaners and then later TV Sets at which he excelled.
“At the time we got $10.00 for each sale so to earn $100 a week was really big as the average salary was only $8.00 a week. I eventually held the record for the most vacuum cleaners sold, 31. One trick was to offer interest free and when you are buying at $100 and selling at $400 you can do this. Now you know where I got the idea of interest free. I then started selling TV sets which back then was hard”. He said.
He then moved into Real Estate for several months but gave this away to start an auction business in Sydney which became his first real success.
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“At the time we hired a rock and roll band to play outside the store. This really bought the punters in and to get stock we advertised in the local newspapers and to get stock on credit we offered the sellers a little bit more if we could pay them within 3-4 weeks” he said.
He added “This gave us the capital to grow and from one shop we expanded into several stores. We went public in 1972 and went on became the most successful discount retailer in Australia”.
“Then there was the Grace Bro’s Walton’s era when I called Alan Bond a crook before the world found out he was a crook. I was working for him at the time and got sacked as I should after calling Bond a crook”.
Gerry Harvey then went on to build the largest mass market retail chain in Australia but not before admitting that he made some mistakes. One of them he admits was not opening an “OfficeWorks retail operation” he added..
“We looked at doing a similar operation after seeing the Office Depot operations in the USA. Instead we went into Computer Mega stores and this is what turned Harvey Norman into the success it is today”.
Talking about conflicts with regulators he said that he had had 3 great fights in his life one with former ACCC boss Alan Fells “Back years ago we opened our stores this guy comes along with trumped up charges over Harvey Norman advertising. He has accused us of bait advertising. I was so angry over this that I went to the Primer Minister and as soon as I mentioned Professor Fells name he threw his hands up in the air and said not another problem with Professor Fells. It took four years before they got rid of him. Then when Graham Samuels came in I had to plead guilty to a charge I was not guilty of before the charge would go away”.
He concluded” Professor Fells I hate you. When you go into a nursing home I will buy the nursing home”.
Harvey also admitted that he was currently facing other charges. “They always confront you with two charges” Plead guilty to one and we will let you off the other they always claim” he said.
Download the attached audio files and listen to it in Windows Media Player. Right click the image and save to your desktop. Open with Windows Media Player.
It is a full and frank outline of Gerry Harvey’s life, Harvey Norman today and the future for Rebel Sports.