HMV boss bullish about the future
HMV will return to profit this year and aims to open new stores in 2020, having stared into the abyss earlier this year.
“We will 100% be profitable this year, for the first time in a long time,” Doug Putman, Chief Executive at Sunrise Records, the Canadian company that bought HMV from administrators, told the FT.
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He attributed much of this to shedding loss making stores and renegotiating leases. Following the closure of the Oxford Street, London store, Putman described the HMV Vault, opening in a former Ikea warehouse beneath a car park in Birmingham City centre, as the group’s new flagship. At 25,000 square feet, it contains a large live music space as well as more than 100,000 vinyl albums and CDs.
It’s certainly a bold move. UK sales of physical media, including CDs, DVDs and games, shrank by nearly 13% in the year to 25th August, according to Kantar. In video – mainly DVDs – sales plunged 28%.