Harris Tech Drags Down Officeworks Results
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Without explicitly pointing the finger at the Harris Technology division, the latest Coles Myer results show its Harris Technology IT division is struggling.

In the group entity’s half yearly results (to 29 January 2006) released today, Coles Myer announced first half sales were up by 4.2 per cent to reach $19 billion for the half despite a generally disappointing Christmas.

The company CEO John Fletcher said revenues in the second quarter were depressed, especially in divisions traditionally sensitive to tighter economic conditions and petrol price rises.

The Electrical division of the company’s Myer group’s lifted its performance with a strong Christmas off the back of what the company describes as “continued dominance in iPod sales and strong sales of plasma and LCD TVs in the lead up to the Commonwealth Games.” The Myer Group, which Coles Myer Limited is currently trying to sell, lifted its revenue result by 2.8 per cent.

Things were even better in the company’s Officeworks division which rose by 6.4 per cent on a comparative (store by store basis). The company grew the number of Officeworks stores by three to 91 during the half. Taking the extra sales from those into account Officeworks revenues increased by a healthy 11.4 per cent.

However, these results exclude the Harris Technology figures. On the above comparative basis the division grew by only 4.9 per cent, slightly down from the 6.4 per cent for OIfficeworks alone.

This seems to indicate a slight fall in revenues for the company’s eight Harris Technology stores. The company did not provide an overall revenue figure for the combined Harris and Officeworks business.

Representatives of the company were unavailable for comment.