JB Hi Fi is a key part of the consumer electronics industry, and sells a lot of gear and with brands like Sony, Apple and several leading music and video games companies; they are their #1 retailer.
While JB Hi Fi executives won't say how much of the total industry the company represents, it is a lot. In areas like flat-panel TVs, digital cameras and notebooks, JB Hi Fi and Harvey Norman combined make up the lion's share of all sales.
For GFK to lose access to up to 50 per cent of the available data in selected categories is a body blow, for the simple reason that the European-based company has a monopoly and in the past has charged vendors, distributors and industry a steep fee to get access to the data.
Now that data is set to be corrupted by the exclusion of key selling data. In some cases, vendors and distributors only deal with JB Hi Fi and Harvey Norman because of the massive footprint they have in Australia.
Several vendors have already told me that they are concerned to the extent that they are now looking to terminate their contracts with GFK or, in a worst-case scenario, get a reduction in their fees.
According to Scott Browning, the Marketing Director at JB Hi Fi, doing business with GFK is a high risk for any retailer.
He believes that too much valuable JB Hi Fi trading data is falling into the hands of competitors and in the future he would prefer to operate on what he calls the "dark side" without any involvement with GFK.
