Hi Kahuna,I appreciate your views and can understand your...

Hi Kahuna,

I appreciate your views and can understand your reasoning.

My views are based on what I am seeing on the ground in a number of retail settings, including at HVN.

One HVN that I see several times a week is on Maroondah Highway (Blackburn /Nunawading). Next to it is a Bunnings (former BBC Hardware).

In the last 3-4 weeks, I have been to Bunnings a number of times and have always spotted more activity there than at HVN.

On the several occasions that I have actually shopped at HVN during this same time period, I came away largely disappointed due to:
1)
poor customer service;
2)
the electrical items we were seeking were either not stocked, out of stock, or would not be re-ordered for some time; and
3)
the furniture items that we were looking for were either not available, had long lead times, or were not in the style that we were seeking (the harmony of the store was simply too homogenised for our liking).

I have though been following HVN's fortunes for some time. In addiiton to what I posted earlier, I remain concerned with their international operations (which do not seem to be setting the world ablaze), and with their customer service (others are now doing it better and I fear that HVN has travelled too far down the franchise lane without considering that superior customer service and variety of choice were originally their differentiating criteria).

On financials, I also suspect that their margins are reducing, but on this I have nothing more than their recent results to consider, gut feel and what (to me) seemed like slow moving stock over the Christmas /New Year period.

Just my thoughts on the matter.