Australia’s Harvey Norman acquires a 49.9% stake in Coomboona dairy farm

Australian-based retailer Harvey Norman’s subsidiary has acquired a 49.9% stake, worth $34m, in dairy farm Coomboona.

As part of the latest deal, Harvey has also agreed to make an advance of approximately $9m to the farm.

Harvey chairman and co-founder Gerry Harvey was quoted by The Australian as saying: "There is no one coming up like we could go into partnership or anything like that, so looking outside of retail, we are always looking at other things that might have some growth potential.

"If you going to get exposed to Harvey Norman, you should get exposed to a company that is trying to make some money. If retail doesn’t make us money we will put our money into something else."

The chairman also added that he had started negotiations with the owners of Coomboona around a year ago for this deal.

The new development is aimed at diversifying the company’s business in order to tap the increasing Asian demand for Australian dairy products and infant formula.

With its subsidiaries, Coomboona owns land and farm assets in the Coomboona district of the Goulburn Valley in northern Victoria. It manages dairy farm operations and a pedigree breeding and genetics division.

In March this year, the local council approved Coomboona Holsteins’ application to more than double the size of their operations, allowing for 4,800 cows.

Meanwhile, Harvey also said that the company is also planning to invest in other businesses that are not related to retail sector.