Retailers may support Sunbeam’s slack sales

January 24th, 2012

Appliance News Small Appliances

Some retailers will continue to discount Sunbeam appliances, despite the small appliance maker today announcing it’s intention to stabilise product prices.

For the first half of the financial year, Sunbeam has been reducing its product prices to encourage shoppers and help mitigate the sluggish retail-scape as well as hamper growing competition from house brands, according to a report issued to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) by Sunbeam’s parent company, GUD Holdings, this morning.

Revenue for the the consumer segment of the company – Sunbeam – was down 8 per cent,  due to the price cutting.

However, despite the still depressed market, Sunbeam said it expected that further price reductions would not be required in the second half of the financial year.

However, this needn’t rain on a shoppers parade, as consumers can expect retailers to keep prices competitive. Appliances Online, for example, continues to slash prices on it’s Sunbeam appliances. Currently at the online retailer there are five Sunbeam food processors on sale, four sandwich presses on sale, five Sunbeam blenders on sale, and four stick blenders on sale – just to name a few!

Sunbeam Food Processor LC8900

Ian Campbell, GUD Holdings managing director, said tough retail conditions were to blame.

“Businesses exposed to the Australian retail trade continue to experience a difficult trading environment and this is evident in the results from our consumer business, where we reduced prices to maintain competitiveness and value,” said Campbell.

The parent company has reported a net profit after tax down 1 per cent to $23 million for the first half of the financial year to 31st December 2011. Soft trading conditions due to reduced retail activity has been blamed for the negative growth, with underlying net profit after tax also down by 13.5 per cent.