HMV in administration - hope you've no vouchers!

[ianrauk]

Yes but the question is are they making any money, its easy to sell stuff cheap, making money on it at those prices is another matter.

The thing is, they are not selling products cheap.
They are well known for having the highest selling price of any music retailer in the UK.
In 2012 The chain still had a turnover of over £227 million.
If they can cut out the non profit making stores, (to the amount of stores they had 15 years ago +/-100) Change their buying and selling price policies. Cut out the corporate bullshit that infested the group and listen to the customers. Make a concerted effort to return to what made them a great chain in the first place then it would be a no brainer for any buyer.

When HMV chain in Canada was bought by Hilco (who are the main interest in HMV UK), they were suffering from a lot of the above. Hilco turned it around and made the chain profitable again.

 

[phil_hg_uk]

Since xmas I have bought loads of cd's from them for silly prices between £3 and £5 each with free delivery, I couldnt have even bought the MP3 versions for that price. I dont know what the prices are normally like because I usually buy the MP3 version but for that price I had to have them.

 

[ianrauk]

Hilco buys HMV

HMV: Restructuring specialist Hilco takes control of retailer


Hilco, which already owns HMV Canada, has bought the debt of HMV from the group's lenders, Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland.

The debt deal gives Hilco effective control of HMV, which fell into administration last week.

HMV has been hit by competition from online rivals, supermarkets, and illegal music and film downloads.

HMV's estimated debt was about £176m, but Hilco is believed to have paid much less than this to acquire it because the retail chain is in administration.

Although Hilco does not yet officially own HMV, the debt deal gives it effective control of the music and DVD chain.

An industry group of music labels and film studios, including Universal Music and Sony, were reported on Monday to favour a buyout of HMV by Hilco.

Hilco bought out HMV Canada from parent HMV group in 2011 for £2m, and this history means suppliers are likely to give a Hilco-owned HMV in the UK more favourable credit terms.

In Canada, Hilco said the support of HMV's key suppliers had been of "critical importance" to the business's performance.

HMV has 223 UK stores in total, and a workforce of about 4,000.

Hilco was not immediately available to comment.

On Monday, the administrators for HMV said that the retail chain would start accepting gift vouchers in stores from Tuesday.

Deloitte, which had previously said that gift cards could not be redeemed in stores, said it had made the change after assessing HMV's financial position.

 

[phil_hg_uk]

I finaly got my HMV order today, it took a week short of a month to get here but I suppose I should be grateful it arrived at all.

 

[Jefferson Meriwether]

About a year ago I wanted to buy an Inspector Lewis boxset. HMV were selling the series 1-4 boxset for £100, more than I was willing to pay. I bought the series 1-5 boxset off of E-Bay for £30. I've never bothered going into HMV since.

 

[SomethingLikeThat]

Bought some new Philips headphones from HMV a few weeks ago, plenty of people in there looking for some super cheap stuff/vulturing.

 

[ianrauk]

The administrators are expecting to announced that 60-100 HMV stores will close this week with the loss of 1500 jobs.
Last week 190 staff were axed from the head office and distribution centre.

 

[Beebo]

here the list of stores closing:
The stores earmarked for closure are:

• England: Ashton-under-Lyne, Barnsley, Bayswater, Bexleyheath, Birkenhead, Birmingham Fort, Blackburn, Boston, Bournemouth Castlepoint, Bracknell, Burton-upon-Trent, Camberley, Chesterfield, Croydon Centrale, Durham, Fulham, Huddersfield, Leamington Spa, Leeds White Rose, Loughborough, Luton, Manchester 90, Moorgate, Orpington, Rochdale, Scunthorpe, South Shields, Speke Park, St Albans, St Helens, Stockton-on-Tees, Tamworth, Teesside, Telford, Trocadero, Wakefield, Walsall, Walton-on-Thames, Wandsworth, Warrington, Watford, Wellingborough, Wigan, Wood Green, Workington
• Scotland: Dumfries, Edinburgh Fort, Edinburgh Gyle Centre, Edinburgh Ocean, Edinburgh Princes Street, Edinburgh St James, Falkirk, Glasgow - Fort, Glasgow - Silverburn, Glasgow Braehead, Kirkcaldy
• Northern Ireland: Ballymena, Belfast Boucher Road, Belfast Forestside, Coleraine, Craigavon, Derry, Lisburn, Newry, Newtownabbey
• Wales: Wrexham

My local one in Bexletheath is up for the chop. No great loss as I never go into Bexleyheath anyway. The one I use is Leadenhall Market which seems to have been saved,

 

[ianrauk]

That's far less then we had thought there where going to be.
My local store, Orpington, is no surprise. They put it in a totally wrong location for a music store.

 

[Andrew_Culture]

My singer is the manager of the Ipswich store and his wife is the deputy manager of the Ipswich store, amazingly for them both stores are staying open!

The sword of Damocles continues to dangle in much the way it has for the last few years though

 

[SomethingLikeThat]

Loughborough's going. I always thought that was quite busy.

 

[subaqua]

not surprised the moorgate one is going either, was rarely busy. moorgate is looking a little desolate now . Jessops was just round the corner

 

[SomethingLikeThat]

The HMV in Loughborough used to be a Zavvi and then a Virgin Megastore before that.

 

[DCLane]

Leeds White Rose - not surprised, the high rents probably have meant that was for the chop

Huddersfield - never seen anyone in it

 

[SquareDaff]

Leeds White Rose is surprising - they have a big store in the City Centre but there's a lot of footfall in that Shopping Centre and given that they're shutting a lot of the stores in satellite areas (Wakefield / Bradford / Huddersfield etc..) that would have seemed to be the next most convenient store due to the free parking. Then again, what do I know!!