HMV has been partially saved, after 100 stores across the UK were acquired by Sunrise Records owner Doug Putman.
The boss of the Canadian music chain won the battle for the stores, beating rival bids from Mike Ashley and an HMV management team to secure control of the high street chain.
HMV Retail filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators for the second time in six years last month. In 2017, HMV Canada closed all 102 of its stores in the country after the retailer went into receivership.
Music Week reports that Putman will keep 100 stores open under the HMV name – four will continue to trade as Fopp – with 1,487 store and head office employees safe from redundancy. 27 stores were not acquired, meaning they’ll be closed with immediate effect and result in 455 redundancies.
Oxford Street is among the stores closing, as reported by the BBC. You can see the full list of stores closing below.
Ayr
Bath
Bluewater
Bristol, Cribbs
Chichester
Exeter, Princesshay
Fopp, Bristol
Fopp, Glasgow Byres
Fopp, Manchester
Fopp, Oxford
Glasgow, Braehead
Guernsey
Hereford
Manchester, Trafford
Merry Hill
Oxford Street
Peterborough, Queensgate
Plymouth, Drake Circus
Reading
Sheffield, Meadowhall
Southport
Thurrock
Tunbridge
Uxbridge
Watford
Westfield
Wimbledon
“We are delighted to acquire the most iconic music and entertainment business in the UK and add nearly 1,500 employees to our growing team,” Putman told Music Week. “By catering to music and entertainment lovers, we are incredibly excited about the opportunity to engage customers with a diverse range of physical format content, and replicate our success in Canada.
“We know the physical media business is here to stay and we greatly appreciate all the support from the suppliers, landlords, employees and most importantly our customers.”
Speaking to Radio 4, Putman said: “We spent the last little while trying to negotiate a deal that made sense for everybody, keeping as many stores open and as many people employed as possible. We’ve been able to come up with a great deal that allows 100 of the stores to continue on.”
“We can confirm we are going to keep HMV, it’s just a fantastic heritage brand coming up shortly to the 100 year anniversary. It’s just so iconic, I feel really lucky to be able to say that we can continue to call it HMV.” You can watch his interview below.
The new owner of HMV, Doug Putman, says the high street music chain will stay in the UK for a "long time". 100 stores have been saved and will retain the name HMV, with a focus on vinyl #r4today https://t.co/Ha7EhcN6qH pic.twitter.com/i9V3UyChdK
— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) February 5, 2019
Putman also said the remaining stores will focus on selling vinyl.