The Harvey Norman Holdings Limited (ASX: HVN) share price is up more than 2% after a strong update.
The business wholly owns company-operated stores in New Zealand, Slovenia, Croatia, Ireland and the UK. It has majority-owned controlled company-operated stores in Singapore and Malaysia.
Harvey Norman’s update also includes the performance of independent Harvey Norman, Domayne and Joyce Mayne branded franchised complexes (stores) in Australia.
FY25 update
Harvey Norman revealed a trading update for the first four months of FY25 compared to the first four months of FY24.
The aggregate sales of all the businesses, including franchises, increased by 1.7% year over year.
Let’s look at the performance of the individual businesses in their local currencies in the first four months of FY25:
- Australian franchisees sales rose 3.2%
- New Zealand sales declined 7.2%
- Slovenia & Croatia sales increased 6.1%
- Ireland sales rose 3.2%
- UK sales grew by 6.9%
- Singapore sales declined 1.2%
- Malaysia sales grew by 5.7%
Other highlights
Harvey Norman noted that during this period, two new franchised complexes were opened. The Macgregor store in Queensland opened on 9 September 2024 and the store in Melton, Victoria, opened on 14 October 2024.
There was also franchised store that was relocated from a leasehold site to a freehold property.
Four new company-operated stores were opened in the period, including at Elmina Lakeside Mall in Malaysia, Merry Hill in England (the first store there), Papanui in New Zealand and Ravenswood in New Zealand.
However, it also noted that one store was closed in Singapore during the current period taking its total number of overseas company-operated stores to 120 as of today.
Is the Harvey Norman share price an opportunity?
The Harvey Norman share price has gone up 37% in the past year, which is a strong rise.
I like looking at retailers when retail conditions are weak and their share prices fall, which was in 2023, but not so much now.
This isn’t the right time to invest in Harvey Norman shares if we’re trying to beat the market, in my view, but I like its international expansion and it has a more compelling growth outlook than some investors may think.
But, there are other ASX dividend shares I would rather buy first.
