JB Hi-Fi

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JB Hi-Fi Limited
Type	Public (ASX:JBH)
Founded	Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 1975
Headquarters	Melbourne, Australia
Key people	Richard Uechtritz, CEO
Industry	Retail
Products	CDs, DVDs, video games and consumer electronics
Revenue	$1.28 billion AUD (2006-7)
Website	www.jbhifi.com.au

JB Hi-Fi (ASX:JBH) is an Australian CD, DVD, video game and consumer electronics chain store.

1 History
2 Acquisitions
3 References
4 External links

[edit] History

JB was established in Melbourne suburb of Keilor East by John Barbuto (JB) in 1975. Barbuto sold the business in 1983. It had a total of ten stores by 2000 when it was bought by private equity. It was subsequently floated on the Australian Stock Exchange in October 2003. ^[1]

At first, it mainly specialised in Hi-Fi equipment. As the mainstream popularity of vinyl records declined, in 1991 JB Hi-Fi cleared out their entire stock of records and began offering exclusively CDs. They were one of the first Australian music retailers to do so; although recently bringing vinyl records back in stock. This allowed JB Hi-Fi to open many new stores in Melbourne and later expand to other states. The chain now has stores all around Australia and some in Auckland, New Zealand's largest city and other parts of New Zealand

Recently, while many music stores claim to have been losing money, JB Hi-Fi has increased profits by 50% in the years 2004-5 & 2005-6. JB also specialises in imported CDs, mainly from the United Kingdom and the United States, although CDs from other countries, such as Japan are available on request. The success of JB Hi-Fi's business model can be seen in the extremely rapid growth of the company after it was floated, with the chain opening dozens of new stores around the country.^{[citation needed]}

JB Hi-Fi, has diversified its business from predominantly selling music CDs, and are now a major retailer for Plasma & LCD, audio/visual, digital camera photography, portable audio, in-car entertainment, computer/video games, DVD movies, gadgets and information technology.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported in June 2007, that JB Hi-Fi is now Australia's biggest CD retailer and is second in terms of sales of computer games, televisions and car stereos. ^[2]

In the half year 2007/8 report, it was reported that there are now 89 store locations in Australia and 15 in New Zealand.^[3] New Zealand currently has 5 JB Hi-Fi stores open: Queen Street, Albany, Manukau and New Lynn. A Hamilton store has opened recently, with other stores around New Zealand due in the near future.

[edit] Acquisitions

In July 2004, JB Hi-Fi bought 70% of the Clive Anthony chain in Queensland.^[1].

On 13 December 2006, JB Hi-Fi acquired the Hill and Stewart chain of electronics stores selling and operating in New Zealand for $NZ17.5 million ($A15.3 million).

In June 2007, JB Hi-Fi expanded its foothold in the Australian market by opening a Sydney branch of Clive Anthonys,at the Hills Homemaker centre which departed from the market that they had already established a strong presence, in that they specialise in whitegoods.^{[citation needed]}