First Christmas, then more Good Guys integration: Murray

The Good Guys’ further operational integration will follow the traders’ busiest period, says David Murray.

Mr Murray said there was already a “reasonable amount” of change in The Good Guys’ business already.

JB Hi-Fi chief executive Richard Murray has said further integration of back office, supply and other operational systems with its newly acquired retail chain The Good Guys will now be held back until after Christmas, as both retail chains focus on the biggest retail trading period for the sector.

Mr Murray, speaking at a retail conference in Melbourne today, also said there needs to be a discussion about penalty rates in Australia, particularly over the issue of Saturday and Sunday penalties rates being different despite many people seeing the weekend days as similar.

“From my perspective, the reason you get penalty rates is because we disrupt your weekend, and I don’t see a lot of difference between Saturday and Sunday personally,” Mr Murray told The Australian this morning.

Mr Murray, whose JB Hi-Fi chain paid $870 million for The Good Guys this month, said he would be adopting a “light touch” to the integration of the business especially as all store managers within both businesses were squarely focused on Christmas planning.

He said once the acquisition is completed, which should be towards the end of the year, and Christmas was over then JB Hi-Fi would accelerate its integration of shared functions such as supply chains and logistics.

“We are just gently easing into it, so the biggest focus for both businesses is delivering their Christmas promotional plans.

“What we have said to investors is pre Christmas, pretty light.

“At a store level the integration is quite minimal ... at the support office and in supply chain, commercial, there are opportunities to come together and work smarter and better after Christmas.”

Mr Murray said there was already a “reasonable amount” of change in The Good Guys’ business already as it was restructured before its sale to JB Hi-Fi — which included independent stores sold back to the business by store managers — and he was eager to first “bed that down” rather than overlay that with a lot more change.

Turning to industrial relations Mr Murray said Australia needed to maintain its innovation, with regulation sometimes getting in the way.

“Employees and employers are pretty united in what they are trying to do and sometimes the regulatory environment kind of overreaches.”

He said staff who worked on the weekend deserved penalty rates but that it was a “worthwhile” discussion to have about Saturday and Sunday paying different rates.”