The last Harris Technology store closed its doors in Sydney late last year, but the brand is alive within sister company Officeworks, where business is booming.
Harris Technology continues to sell online and offers fulfillment via five Officeworks stores – one each in NSW, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and the ACT – but closed its last remaining store in October last year in Sydney's North Ryde.
Meanwhile, Officeworks – whose IT range includes PC and Macs desktops and laptops plus tablets and more – grew earnings by 19 percent to hit $50 million for the six months to 31 December 2014, with sales growing by 7.7 percent to $802 million.
The retailer is keenly focused on the tech sector, with everything from notebook computers to iPhones, external hard drives and fitness bands dominating its website and catalogue.
Officeworks' store network also continued to expand, reaching 153 stores after 13 were added in the 2013 financial year and three in the six months to 31 December.
The retailer broke the $100 million earnings mark before interest and tax in its 2014 financial year.
Harris history
Describing itself as one of Australia’s largest resellers of technology to small and medium businesses, Harris Technology was acquired by Coles Myer in 1999, which took over nine Harris Technology Business Centres. The operation was later placed within the Officeworks business in 2005 and its distribution centre "embedded" within an Officeworks fulfilment centre.
Harris Technology's SMB focus saw it win a reseller agreement with Dell in 2009, including the servicing of Dell PCs. Along the way it also become a Telstra dealer, and partnered with Engin to offer hosted VoIP.
At its peak, Harris Technology had more than 10 business technology centres, however that number fell to five by the end of 2010: in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra and Perth. By the end of 2012 there was one Harris Technology Business Centre left.
Both Harris Technology and Officeworks sell software, printers, ink and toner, projectors, tablets, networking hardware, digital cameras, point-of-sale devices and storage.
Harris Technology's range includes HP, Microsoft, Adobe, Lenovo, Brother, Toshiba, Samsung, Asus and Sony.
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