HMV has been rescued by the restructuring expert Hilco, saving more than 2,500 high street jobs and 141 stores.
Hilco, which already owns HMV Canada, said the deal for the CD and DVD retailer included 25 stores that had been slated for closure, although 80 sites will remain shuttered. All nine branches of its Fopp music chain will also be saved.
HMV, founded in 1921 and famous for its Nipper the dog trademark, collapsed into administration in January after struggling to compete against cut-price supermarket offers and internet downloads. It is understood the chain was sold for £50m, but Hilco and HMV's administrators Deloitte declined to comment on the sale price.
Paul McGowan, the chief executive of Hilco, said: "We hope to replicate some of the success we have had in the Canadian market with the HMV Canada business which we acquired almost two years ago and which is now trading strongly. The structural differences in the markets and the higher level of competition in the UK will prove additional challenges for the UK business but we believe it has a successful future ahead of it."
HMV UK will be run by a Hilco team working alongside existing management. It will be led by Ian Topping, formerly chief executive of the South African retail group Steinhoff. McGowan will become HMV's chairman.
Topping said it was an "exciting investment" and believes the nation's outpouring of grief when HMV collapsed "shows a strong desire for the business to continue to trade and we hope to play a constructive part in delivering that".
Topping plans to take HMV back to its traditional musical roots by reversing an earlier decision to sell tablets in store in order to "reclaim the space for an enhanced music and visual range".
HMV called in administrators from Deloitte in January but hopes of a rescue deal were raised just days later when Hilco bought HMV's £176m of debt for a reported £40m. It was announced in February that 66 of HMV's 220 shops would close over two months, at the cost of nearly 1,000 jobs. Another 37 store closures were announced later that month.
At its peak, HMV had more than 400 shops around the world, more than half of them in the UK. It had a 35% share of Britain's CD market in 2012.
These HMV stores in the UK will therefore remain open (including the flagship at Oxford). HURRAH!
1. Aberdeen
2. Ayr
3. Banbury
4. Bangor (Wales)
5. Basingstoke
6. Basildon
7. Bath
8. Belfast Donegall Arcade
9. Birmingham Bullring
10. Blackpool
11. Bluewater
12. Bournemouth
13. Bradford
14. Brighton
15. Bristol Broadmead
16. Bristol Cribbs Causeway
17. Bromley
18. Bury
19. Bury St Edmunds
20. Cambridge
21. Canary Wharf
22. Canterbury
23. Cardiff
24. Carlisle
25. Chelmsford
26. Cheltenham
27. Chester
28. Chichester
29. Colchester
30. Coventry
31. Crawley
32. Cwmbran
33. Darlington
34. Derby
35. Doncaster
36. Dudley Merry Hill Centre
37. Dundee
38. Eastbourne
39. East Kilbride
40. Edinburgh Fort
41. Edinburgh Ocean Terminal
42. Edinburgh Princes Street
43. Exeter
44. Gateshead
45. Glasgow Argyle Street
46. Glasgow Buchanan Street
47. Glasgow Fort
48. Gloucester
49. Grimsby
50. Guernsey (St.Peter Port)
51. Guildford
52. Hanley (Stoke-on-Trent)
53. Harlow
54. Harrogate
55. Hastings
56. Hatfield
57. Hereford
58. High Wycombe
59. Horsham
60. Hull
61. Inverness
62. Ipswich
63. Islington
64. Isle of Man (Douglas)
65. Isle of Wight (Newport)
66. Jersey (St.Helier)
67. Kettering
68. King's Lynn
69. Kingston-Upon-Thames
70. Leamington Spa
71. Leeds Headrow
72. Leeds White Rose
73. Leicester
74. Lincoln
75. Liverpool LiverpoolOne
76. Livingston
77. Llandudno
78. Maidstone
79. Manchester 90 Market Street
80. Manchester Trafford Centre
81. Mansfield
82. Middlesbrough
83. Milton Keynes
84. Newcastle
85. Newport (Wales)
86. Northampton
87. Norwich Chapelfield
88. Norwich Gentlemen's Walk
89. Nottingham Victoria Centre
90. Nuneaton
91. Oxford
92. Oxford Circus 150 Oxford Street, London W1
93. Peterborough
94. Poole
95. Portsmouth Commercial Road
96. Portsmouth Gun Wharf
97. Preston
98. Plymouth
99. Reading Oracle Centre
100. Romford
101. Selfridges Oxford Street, London W1
102. Sheffield High Street
103. Sheffield Meadowhall
104. Shrewsbury
105. Solihull
106. Southampton
107. Southend
108. Southport
109. Speke Park (Liverpool)
110. Staines
111. Stevenage
112. Stirling
113. Stockport
114. Stratford-Upon-Avon
115. Sunderland
116. Sutton
117. Swansea
118. Taunton
119. Thanet
120. Thurrock
121. Truro
122. Tunbridge Wells
123. Uxbridge
124. Westfield London Stratford City
125. Westfield London W12
126. Wimbledon (hmvcurzon)
127. Winchester
128. Wolverhampton
129. Worcester
130. Worthing
131. Yeovil
132. York
Fopp Stores
1. Bristol
2. Cambridge
3. Edinburgh
4. Glasgow, Byres Road
5. Glasgow, Union Street
6. London - Covent Garden
7. London - Gower Street
8. Manchester
9. Nottingham
4 comments:
It is great news - as is the fact they have decided to stop trying to flog devices and just concentrate on CDs and DVDs/Blu-Ray. They were in serious danger of "muddying the waters" for a long time, when the competition is so fierce. I am pleased so many stores are staying open (at the moment!), but I only hope they look realistically at their prices otherwise they are still going to be undercut by Amazon... Jx
Yes, thrilled to hear they will return to focus on CD's and DVDs/Blu-Ray! And hopefully they will start to offer more competitive prices. But this is very good news indeed for UK music lovers and tourists. A trip to London just would not be the same without a couple of hours (or more) in the Oxford store!
I wouldn't go to Oxford to shop - but I gues you mean Oxford Street (Oxford Circus)... lol! Jx
Erm - obviously, yes ;) It used to be my mothership - went there for the first time in 2001 and stayed for hours. The money I spent in there is probably what kept them going this long, e-hemm...
Just really glad that they (along with Fopp) will stay in business, at least for a while. I just hope they will indeed give the branch a much needed "facelift" and a different price policy.
Post a Comment