RETAILER SPOTLIGHT: HARVEY NORMAN
April/May 2026
housewareslive.net
“Our biggest competitors have over 100 stores and we have good aspirations”
Harvey Norman UK recently opened its second store in the West Midlands, in Sutton Coldfield, 14 months after it opened in Merry Hill Shopping Centre in Dudley. Simon King reports
has a beautiful atrium, not dissimilar to the one in Sutton Coldfield, also it’s also not dissimilar to the skylight in one of our brand-new stores in Croatia,” Mr Roach said.
Working with suppliers
For the Sutton Coldfield store, just like it did with the Merry Hill store, Harvey Norman worked with its supplier partners to make integrated appliances look cool. “We’ve got seven or eight manufacturers that are presenting leading designs so customers can get a better idea as to what it’s going to look like in their home, and also it creates a bit more atmosphere in a traditionally boring category, like integrated fridges,” Mr Roach said. “If you want a £19 kettle, I’ve got them; if you want one of the cool Smeg Porsche kettles for £299, I’ve got those as well. If you want a front-load washer for £199 great, I’ve got a Candy machine up there that’ll do it, or if you want the latest from Miele for £2,000, I’ve got that as well.”
New stores H
arvey Norman is on target to have five UK mainland stores open by mid-2028, according to Lachlan Roach, Managing Director of Harvey Norman UK. Mr Roach, who has worked for Harvey Norman for 24 years, told Housewares Magazine that the business had been looking for a site in Sutton Coldfield for the last four years. Once the site had been secured, Mr Roach said the retailer received a lot of positive comments from the people of Sutton Coalfield. “People really wanted to see what we’re all about, so we hit the accelerator,” Mr Roach said. “We took over three weeks off the standard build time, making Sutton Coldfield the fastest build Harvey Norman has ever done over multiple floors, across its 318 stores, several of which are double-storey. “Our contractors, Gloucestershire-based Barnwoods, put in some
really big shifts. They got in early, went home late, did seven days a week, and our teams did the same.” To create the 52,000sq ft Sutton Coldfield store, Mr Roach has taken elements from both Australia and Croatia. “Our flagship store in Australia, Auburn, consists of two storeys, and it
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Mr Roach said that the retailer is involved in deals that are getting closer to becoming a reality on a couple more sites. “It’s widely documented that we think five is a good number in the
West Midlands, and there’s a couple of markets in the West Midlands, one in particular, that we really want to get to, but we’d love to be there,” Mr Roach said. “Then we’ll have a look at what business looks like after that. We’re not
currently looking at any other regions of the UK; our focus now is making sure we can service the five million people in the West Midlands – if you have a look at our New Zealand and Irish businesses, both of those markets have about five million people, and the West Midlands has that. “We’re comfortable and confident that we can do good numbers and we want to make sure our supply partners have good sales, and then we’ll have a look at, strategically, what the next chapter looks like after that.”
Mr Roach’s gut feel is that the business will head north next. “The big thing for us now is we have the formula, we had the
relationship with contractors,” Mr Roach said. The Harvey Norman UK team is growing and Mr Roach said that the retailer should be able to roll stores out a little quicker.
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