Harvey Norman in Byron Bay

Stores top cash crop for Harvey. IT was 1970 and Gerry Harvey had found the perfect site for one of his retail outlets in the northwest NSW town of Tamworth.

There was just one small problem. “It had a house on it,” he recalls. “I knocked on the door and a little old lady came out. I said: ‘You can make me a cup of tea if you like and then I want to buy your house’.” Within hours his lawyers had the paperwork finalised. Decisiveness is a hallmark of the man.

When asked what he would be if he weren’t the boss of one of the nation’s major retail chains, his answer is instant: “I’d be a farmer.” You could argue he is already. He breeds cattle and racehorses â€“ in a big way.

Harvey owns three horse studs and, together with advertising guru John Singleton and Rob Ferguson, former chief of Banker’s Trust Australia, owns thoroughbred sales company Magic Millions. He farms wagyu cattle, a Japanese breed that produces marbled beef renowned for its flavour and tenderness that can command retail prices in Japan of more than $400 a kilo.

Farming and breeding horses, says Harvey, is a great passion but also a source of frustration. “I like quick things in a way, like I’d like to buy 1000 fridges and sell them all tomorrow. “But when I breed horses, I’ve got to arrange a mating and then it’s five years later sometimes before my horse wins the race.”

Fortunately, while he is waiting for his horses and cattle to grow, he is buying and selling fridges to keep himself occupied. A university drop-out, Harvey “went selling” before starting his retail chain in 1961, when he had just turned 22. In those days it was known as Norman Ross. Harvey and business partner Ian Norman created a chain of 42 stores in NSW and Queensland before selling out in 1982. The pair started again, this time establishing Harvey Norman with one store in Sydney before growing to 13 outlets within five years.

In 1987 Harvey Norman floated on the stock exchange and today has about 160 stores in Australia, 19 in New Zealand, one in Slovenia, two in Ireland, a controlling interest in 11 retail stores in Singapore and a wholesale and retail store in Malaysia.

Harvey plans to grow store numbers and could expand further overseas if the right opportunity surfaces. “Say Ireland goes really well, we’ll put more resources into Ireland, going into Northern Ireland, Scotland and the UK,” he says. “Say Slovenia goes better than Ireland, then we’ll put more money going into Slovenia, going into Croatia, Serbia and because Slovenia joins on to Austria, Italy and Hungary we’d go in that direction.”

Harvey says his secret is to look at the big picture and get others to fill in the detail. “I’m a Virgo so if you look up the star sign they are supposed to be meticulous and a perfectionist and I’m not like that really. “I think I’m probably better at the big picture and then getting other people to be more meticulous . . . and I don’t believe in the stars either.”

Harvey grew up in a pub near Cowra in central NSW. His father was a publican and a farmer and advised him that being an electrician might be a promising vocation. “My father married twice so there were three kids in the first marriage, I was in the second marriage and there were three kids in that,” says Harvey.

A self-made success, Harvey is noted for his accessibility to his staff and the media and claims that a pet hate is self-importance. “You see some of these people who are just ordinary people who get a big job in life and all of a sudden their chest pumps out and they become this different person,” he says. “If I get an attack of this self-importance I need some people around me to kick me in the backside to bring me back down. “I’ve got a wife that will do it quicker than anyone else.” Harvey and his wife Katie Page (who is also Harvey Norman’s managing director and the brains behind the company’s push into Slovenia) have four children.

Their eldest, Michael, was a former managing director of Harvey Norman before deciding to pursue other interests. Michael remains a director although Harvey senior admits he was a little disappointed but philosophical about his son leaving his hands-on role in the business.

“It’s very difficult when you’ve got very wealthy parents and you’ve got kids that are supposed to take over,” he said. “If you talk to a lot of these people in that sort of position, it is a rather daunting situation because always in the back of their head they have this thing about ‘are they as good as their parents?’ “You don’t want your kid to be put in that position. All you want them to be is happy.”

Harvey’s latest project, building an eco resort on 18ha of rainforest at Byron Bay, has created a degree of friction with green groups and the local council. Sixty-two units are set among 3ha of rainforest and a further 30 are being built.

Posted: Monday, October 10th, 2005 Under: Gossip. | Home |

Byron Bay Recent News Articles

Comments are closed.