Hilco, a restructuring specialist, will acquire 132 of the HMV stores and 9 Fopp stores which were placed in administration earlier this year. It is believed that the £50 Million deal will save over 2500 jobs and will scrap 25 scheduled store closures.
The first HMV store opened in London in 1921 and the brand grew to become the UK’s leading music retailer over the 20th century with the company expanding it’s horizons around the world in the 80’s and 90’s. But the rise of the digital generation brought the expanding HMV to its knees as it could no longer cope with competition from supermarkets and online retailers. The brand was forced to announce store closures in 2011 and finally entered administration in January 2013.
Hilco’s deal will stop 25 of the scheduled store closures as it attempts to revamp HMV. The restructuring specialist, Hilco, has a positive history with HMV having already saved ‘HMV Canada’ in 2011 by concentrating on selling music and film and stepping away from selling consumer electronics.
The new owner, plans to use a similar strategy in the UK to restructure HMV. Music labels and film studios, keen to ensure that a major entertainment retailer remains on the high street, are understood to have agreed to support HMV with new supply terms.
The HMV website relaunched on Friday with the message ‘We Are Entertainment’. The site, however, is not open for trading yet.
A list of the saved HMV stores can be seen below;
Aberdeen, Ayr, Banbury, Bangor (Wales), Basildon, Basingstoke, Bath, Belfast Donegall Arcade, Birmingham Bullring, Blackpool, Bluewater, Bournemouth, Bradford, Brighton Churchill, Bristol Broadmead, Bristol Cribbs, Bromley, Bury, Bury St Edmunds, Cambridge, Canary Wharf, Canterbury, Cardiff, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Cheltenham, Chester, Chichester, Colchester, Coventry, Crawley, Cwmbran, Darlington,Derby, Doncaster, Dundee, East Kilbride, Eastbourne, Edinburgh Fort Retail, Edinburgh Ocean Terminal, Edinburgh Princes Street, Exeter, Gateshead, Glasgow Argyle, Glasgow Buchanan, Glasgow Fort, Gloucester, Grimsby, Guernsey, Guildford, Hanley, Harlow, Harrogate, Hastings, Hatfield, Hereford, High Wycombe, Horsham, Hull, Inverness, Ipswich, Isle of Man, Isle of Wight, Islington, Jersey, Kettering,Kings Lynn, Kingston, Leamington Spa, Leeds Headrow, Leeds White Rose, Leicester, Lincoln, Liverpool One, Livingston, Llandudno, Maidstone, Manchester Market Street, Manchester Trafford Centre, Mansfield, Merry Hill, Middlesbrough, Milton Keynes, Newcastle, Newport (Wales), Northampton, Norwich Gentlemans Walk, Norwich Chapelfield, Nottingham Victoria, Nuneaton, Oxford, Oxford Circus, Peterborough Queensgate, Plymouth Drake Circus, Poole, Portsmouth Commercial Road, Portsmouth Gun Wharf Quay, Preston, Reading Oracle, Romford, Selfridges Oxford Street, Sheffield High Street, Sheffield Meadowhall, Shrewsbury, Solihull, Southampton, Southend Victoria, Southport, Speke Park, Staines, Stevenage, Stirling, Stockport, Stratford upon Avon, Stratford City Westfield, Sunderland, Sutton, Swansea, Taunton, Thanet, Thurrock, Truro, Tunbridge Wells, Uxbridge, Westfield London, Wimbledon, Winchester, Wolverhampton, Worcester, Worthing, Yeovil, York.