Amber Technology who has been under investigation by the Australia Competition and Consumer Commission has reported a 7.6% overall decline in revenue and an 11% fall in profits. In their Pro Broadcast division profits have fallen by as much as 83% up to June 2010.
The lifestyle entertainment division which is headed by Bran Lee has seen profits slump 33%, this is the same division that is under investigation by the ACCC after they refused to honour warranty guarantees that had originally been sold to JB Hi Fi.
Ambertech CEO Peter Wallace said that retail sales via the likes of JB Hi Fi and Harvey Norman were slower than expected.
In Australia Amber Technology is selling Onkyo branded Hi Fi gear at up to 250 percent higher than the cost of the same or similar goods being sold by US retailers, who are already taking a 17 per cent trade discount on the same goods.
The high price of Onkyo goods via Amber resulted in one Sydney based retailer sourcing stock direct from Onkyo distributors in Asia and via a discount deal with JB Hi Fi who were prepared to sell stock to Digital Cinema at a discount of 50% until Amber found out and stopped the practise.
The lifestyle division saw sales fall 1.4% to $40,871,000 (2009: $41,448,000) while profits fell 33.1% to $1,523,000.
Wallace said that during the past financial year the Company had a number of successes with their projection and video conferencing products.
Also hit was the Companies custom installs business due to what the Company said was “continued depression of the new home building market”.
Sales in their Professional business saw revenues fall by 20.6% to $21,446,000 (2009: $26,994,000). Profits slumped 83.2% to $302,000 Vs $1.7M in 2009.
Ambertech said that fewer products were supplied under period contract than in the previous financial year.
Wallace said “In the short term we expect that we will continue to see uncertainty in the economic outlook both for our markets and globally. We also anticipate that there is likely to be further consolidation or casualty of global suppliers of equipment, and this continues to present both risks and opportunities for Ambertech.
