Next Byte's Melbourne CBD store to close

Vita Group will close another capital city store with the announcement a Next Byte store in the Melbourne CBD will close Friday.

The closure was announced by Next Byte via a closing down sale post on Facebook and Twitter.

The Next Byte Facebook page states: “Our Melbourne CBD store will be closing down on Friday 6th Feb. There are some great deals available in store, so drop by if you’re in the area and grab a bargain!”

There are five Apple stores in Melbourne, some in the outer suburbs, located in Southland, Chadstone, Doncaster, Highpoint and Fountain Gate. While Apple does not have a store in the Melbourne CBD, there has been years of speculation about whether Apple will open a store there.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.

Next Byte has previously explained its strategy is to focus on regional areas, rather than competing with Apple "head-on", which Vita Group chief executive officer Maxine Horne re-iterated today.

She told CRN the Next Byte store was closing “as a result of not being in our strategic direction, which is the Apple look and feel store, but in regional areas”.

She added that the “expiry on the lease has prompted us to close rather than re-sign in the same location”.

The Melbourne CBD closure, reported by iTwire, will follow the closure of Next Byte’s Brisbane CBD store last year after the opening of an Apple store there. The closure will bring the number of Next Byte stores in Australia to 13, including one in Victoria at Werribee.

“We’ve worked with Apple identifying these locations that will complement the Apple network,” Horne said, pointing to stores in Townsville, Mackay, Shellharbour, Werribee and Rockhampton as examples.

She said there were six staff, or four full-time equivalent staff at the Elizabeth Street store. Two staff were offered relocation, with one declining and one re-deployed.

“It’s always an unfortunate situation when you do close a store. Wherever possible we do try to relocate people,” she said.

Vita Group achieved a 66 percent increase in underlying net profit after tax for its 2014 financial year, with the results announced in August 2014. However Next Byte revenues fell 17 percent to $75.2 million during that period.

Meanwhile the company’s Telstra stores are expected to be a significant contributor to an improvement in earnings for the half year to 31 December. Those results are expected this month.

Horne told CRN that Vita Group reached 100 Telstra stores before Christmas.

Vita Group has also previously identified the business channel as a significant opportunity. “It’s absolutely about solution-selling now... around professional managed services,” Horne said.