Harvey Norman chair Gerry Harvey expects business bankruptcies to tick up amid higher expenses

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Harvey Norman chairman Gerry Harvey expects lots more businesses to go bust in the next 12 months as they face higher and potentially ruinous expenses such as wages and power bills.

Mr Harvey on Friday said excessive costs of doing business were already proving to be the biggest challenge for the furniture, electronics and white goods retailer.

“If you’re in an industry where you haven’t got the ability to increase your margin or your sales, you’re going to really suffer,” he told The West Australian.

“I think that a lot of businesses in the next 12 months will be put under enormous pressure and you might see more business bankruptcies than you’ve seen for a very, very long time.”

Mr Harvey’s comments came after the retailer revealed net profit slid $187.07 million, or 34.7 per cent, to $352.5m in the year to the end of June.

Total sales fell $8.86 billion compared with $9.19b reported a year ago.

It’s a set of results Mr Harvey hoped could have been better “but it’s been a fairly difficult year that’s got a bit better in the last six months”.

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