Harvey Norman made its English debut last month in the unlikely location of Merry Hill Shopping Centre in Dudley.
The Australian electricals and homewares retailer, which has over 300 stores worldwide, has had a lengthy period testing the waters in Northern Ireland for the last 15 years.
While the rural suburbs of Dudley may seem like an unusual launchpad for the retailer, which generated £4.6bn (AUS$8.86bn) in global sales last year, to make its English debut, there is method in the madness from one of Australia’s largest retailers.
“This has definitely been a market that we’ve wanted to get into for a little while,” notes Harvey Norman UK managing director Lachlan Roach as he takes Retail Gazette on a tour of the new 57,000 sq ft store inside the former Debenhams store.
He admits that that although it searched all across the country, “density for us was a big thing, and then diverse population was very important because it allows us to demonstrate a range of different products with different tastes”.
This has landed Harvey Norman in Dudley. Roach also points out that the West Midlands is “literally four hours” away from anywhere in the country “from a logistics standpoint”.
With a second store close to being signed, we find out more about Harvey Norman and its plans for the UK.
Helping shoppers create rooms
Founded in 1982, Harvey Norman has built its empire selling electricals, furniture, tech appliances and bedding across Australia.
Roach, who has worked his way up the ranks at the retailer since 2002, describes the retailer as “a little bit of John Lewis, a little bit of Currys, a little bit of Sofology, a little bit of Bensons or Dreams”.
“It’s a combination of a few of them, because no one does the four categories in Great Britain anymore in this way,” he adds.
The Merry Hill store – which Roach notes is one of the smallest of the brand’s eight global flagships – houses a range of furniture such as sofas, dining sets, bedroom suites and mattresses, alongside an assortment of home appliances, technology, and entertainment products from big brands including Miele, Samsung, Apple and Dyson.
Commenting on the wide range of goods available, which spans 115-inch TVs and Dolce & Gabbana toasters to Silentnight mattresses and linens, Roach explains the retailer “really tries and helps people create rooms”. He says people may come in for a mattress but can “walk out with the whole room”.
Harvey Norman prides itself on having an “offering for everybody”.
Roach says: “We build these stores…which definitely has a focus on that mid [price point] with a flare to the upper, but our best sellers, unsurprisingly, are always in that entry to midpoint where a lot of customers are comfortable to shop in.”
Harvey Norman has been careful not to overwhelm the customer with product by adding a partition in the store, which gives the effect of two separate home and technology stores within the one unit.
Standing in the quieter home furnishings side of the store, Roach explains: “We do intentionally create a different shopping environment out here, out of the sort of hustle and bustle of technology and entertainment.”
Best in brands
Harvey Norman is a big brand retailer and Roach explains there are “over 100 brands in store” and that goes up to “over 5,000 different SKUs” available online.
The retailer positions itself “on the forefront” of new technologies, pointing out LG’s new range of portable TVs and the Asko washer dryer stack that features a pull-out ironing board.
The store’s technology and appliances ranges have been organised by brands such as Smeg, Miele, Samsung and Siemens.
“We find people like to shop in different ways. Customers are doing more and more research so there’s less people coming in that don’t know what they’d like to buy in a certain category,” says Roach.
Small domestic appliances have also been categorised by purpose, divided into coffee and breakfast sections to separate the De’Longhi espresso machine from the Russell Hobbs toasters and kettles.
Harvey Norman seems to sell most things, but shoppers won’t find anything own-brand in the store.
“We don’t do any of our own brands. Everything is from a manufacturer,” says Roach. “We don’t build a thing…we build a great store to showcase what the brands do.
“These brands spend millions and millions of pounds in design, research, marketing and partnerships so we push the brands as hard as we can to come up with great new products to bring to the market.”
Roach points out that many of the store’s fixtures have been customised for the Merry Hill location, including its pull-out display that he “drew on whiteboard” designed to show off Smeg’s many fridge colour variations.
“Being a global brand, we’ve got close brand partnerships [and] we work with them to do in-store executions as well.”
“Smeg have got something like 13 or 14 different colours of fridges so instead of having 14 different fridges on the floor, we’ve been able to work with them on creating this display that’s got the multiple doors on.”
Harvey Norman’s UK plans
Harvey Norman has not just grown in Australia. It also trades in Malaysia, Singapore, Slovenia, New Zealand, Republic of Ireland, and Northern Ireland.
Roach explains the UK has “definitely been a market that we’ve wanted to get into for a little while”, but shares that factors such as a global pandemic put its plans on pause.
“Getting to Ireland was somewhat of a starting point, and then, for a number of different reasons along the way, the timing hasn’t been right,” he says.
The West Midlands seems like an unlikely place for an international giant to make its mark in the UK, but its all part of Harvey Norman’s plan to achieve success in the country.
“When we did our research on the area, the West Midlands stood out to us,” he says, explaining “we can get to a lot of people really quickly, which should help us with brand awareness and getting more people through the store”.
“If you think about the density of the West Midlands compared to New Zealand…the West Midlands region is around 5 million people. We’ve got 46 stores in New Zealand for about 5 million people and then in Ireland, we’ve got 16 stores to about 5.2 million people.”
However, Roach sees more opportunity in the West Midlands and admits Harvey Norman is close to securing its second location near its UK head office in Sutton Coldfield.
“Then, we ideally would like to have a look around the southern part of Birmingham for that triangle kind of effect,” he says.
However, not every store will be as grand as its one in Merry Hill. Roach says some of the retailer’s Northern Ireland stores “have been running just with furniture and bedding as an offering”.
Roach is pretty tight-lipped about the company’s plans for the rest of the UK and insists that Harvey Norman will not rush into any aggressive expansion plans any time soon.
However, the Austrailian retail giant’s first store in England will have certainly captured the attention of many shoppers – and retail rivals – in the UK.
Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter
