Reporting season has finally kicked off in Australia, which means it’s also time for JB Hi-Fi to let everyone know just how well the world of video games is doing for their business. Short answer: business is so good that they’ll be doubling down on gaming over the next year.
The electronics retailer unveiled their full-year results for 2018-19 to investors this morning, and on just about all accounts things are pretty healthy. Overall sales and sales growth were both up for the year (4.1 percent to $4.72 billion and 2.8 percent comparable sales growth), but the biggest success for the company was a 23 percent bump in their online business.
Movie and music sales have continued to tank, mind you, with the company saying both sectors had suffered “double digit declines”. All software sales fell by 7.3 percent, but the company noted that “strong growth in the Games Software category” alleviated the fall. Games hardware also contributed to a 5.4 percent jump in annual sales for the Hardware and Services category, which is all products sold by JB excluding games software, movies and music.
JB’s investor presentation went on to note that JB would be investing even further in the gaming space, with “in-store gaming experience zones” to be rolled out at select stores over the next 12 months:
The presentation added that JB will start a national in-home TV installation service later this year as well, although no details about the program were included in the deck.
JB noted that as online purchases continued to cannibalise retail sales of traditional software — not games, in other words — they would slowly reduce their floorspace and inventory over time. “The JB Hi-Fi business will maintain a software presence in store while the category is still providing solid returns, whilst adjusting inventory, range and in-store space allocated to the category as appropriate,” the company said.
The full presentation can be view on JB Hi-Fi’s ASX page.
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