“People have been talking about online now for 20 years. What happened with our online business is it went through the roof during the pandemic, then dropped dramatically,” he said.
“You look at those online players that were going to take over all the business – they are 1693447841 going out of business day by day, across the world.”
The retailer on Thursday pointed to “progressively worsening macroeconomic conditions and cost of living pressures this year”, with revenue at the company’s franchise operations down by 10.7 per cent for the year to $1.07 billion.
Profit before tax at Australian franchise stores was down by 32.5 per cent to $373.4 million.
The profitability of Harvey Norman’s global operations also declined throughout 2023, with profit before tax declining 40 per cent to $139 million.
A trading update on sales for the month of July revealed that conditions continued to be softer in the first months of the new financial year, with Harvey Norman’s global markets posting a drop in comparable sales compared with 2022. Australian franchise sales were down by 12.6 per cent, while New Zealand stores had dropped by 4.7 per cent compared to last July.
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The company first gave a warning about its results in June, when it revealed in a trading update that it expected pre-tax profit in the range of $637 million and $703 million. Its final profit before tax figure exceeded these expectations, coming in at $776.1 million.
Rival ASX-listed electronics retailer JB Hi-Fi surprised the market earlier this month with a better than expected result, but chief executive Terry Smart was under no illusions about the conditions, saying the company expects conditions to remain challenging for some time.
Harvey Norman shares opened lower but were up by 1.8 per cent just after 10.30am to $3.91.
Harvey Norman shareholders will see a final dividend of 12.5 cents per share, down from 17.5 cents last year, to be paid on November 13.
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