JB Hi-Fi taps Telstra cloud to help build $500m IT empire

JB Hi-Fi has rebranded its enterprise division as part of its bid to develop a $500 million cloud, infrastructure and networking business.

The newly renamed JB Hi-Fi Solutions now employs 350 staff and growing. It offers a host of IT services, including servers and storage solutions, managed services and integration for enterprise customers in education, government and mining.

Chief executive Richard Murray revealed to CRN that the retailer was partnering with Telstra for its cloud offerings, but remained tight-lipped on other partners. “Our strategy is not to share our strategy with others. As a retailer, we’re leading the pack so we’re trying not to telegraph our movements to competitors.”

JB Hi-Fi expanded into managed services when it acquired Melbourne reseller Network Neighborhood in 2013, which was later rebranded as JB Hi-Fi Education Solutions.

The company has hired former Data#3 and Dimension Data sales manager Carlos Gouveia as general manager of professional services. Gouveia spent four and a half years as professional services manager at Data#3 before joining JB Hi-Fi. He was also professional services manager for Dimension Data for three years in South Africa.

General manager of education solutions Brett Armstrong has been promoted to general manager of commercial sales for JB Hi-Fi Solutions following rebranding.

CRN spoke to Murray as the publicly listed retailer announced its 2015 financial results.

JB Hi-Fi reported its sixth consecutive year of growth, with net profit up 6.4 percent from $128 million to $136 million.

Overall, sales grew $163 million, or 4.8 percent, up to $3.6 billion, compared with $3.4 billion last year.

The biggest sales areas were mobile and PC sales, with hardware and services sales up 8.1 percent. The best-selling products were Apple Mac, Microsoft Surface and Lenovo's range of 2-in-1 devices, while the mobile business was boosted by the iPhone 6 launch.

Murray said that software sales continued to decline, and big screen TVs continued to be "a challenge".

He also cited fitness wearables as a future growth area dominated by the popularity of Fitbit, as well as drones and app-controlled devices. He also announced that the Sydney Westfield store would begin selling the Apple Watch this Saturday.

JB Hi-Fi's New Zealand operations were the least optimistic division, with sales declining 0.1 percent to $211 million.