Harvey Norman shuts down OFIS chain after just one year

Retail giant Harvey Norman will close its OFIS office supply stores as the downturn eats into company sales.

The closures come after last week’s announcement from chairman Gerry Harvey that 10 Harvey Norman stores will close after disappointing first-half results.

“They will be starting to close down now, and they will be closed before the end of June,” Harvey told The Australian. “It’s going to cost too much money, so it’s better to close now, give up.”

Harvey also said he had plans to expand the OFIS chain, but decided to close the business when the first results started to come in. He is unsure as to how many jobs will be lost, as some OFIS employees may be re-hired.

“We wanted to open 100 shops with the concept that we had, but we got to five shops, we looked at it and said this is going to take too long if we ever make it.”

The closer will result in a pre-tax profit loss of between $7 million and $8 million in the 2008-09 financial year.

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