UK entertainment retail giant, HMV, have disclosed a £121.7 million loss. That’s a huge swing after the previous year’s profits of £49.2 million and represents a like for like sales drop of 11 per cent. This announcement leaves HMV’s total debt up to £170.6 million.
HMV have blamed an underperforming games market for the drop with competition from high street and supermarkets indicated as possible reasons for the decline.
All this comes against the backdrop of some significant refinancing and the promise of far reaching change for the company who have shed Waterstones and HMV Canada from their group to stanch those losses. They’re expected to close stores and restructure their retail space to include more technology as well as focus on live music and ticket sales.
Is this another indication that the supermarket price wars are really hitting specialist retailers hard? Will HMV’s new focus still have so much room for the games market which they focussed on quite heavily for the past couple of years?
Source: MCV
TSBonyman
Their new release games are often €5 cheaper than the other stores in Ireland but that’s about the only good thing i can say about them. I’ve grown tired of their buy 1 get 1 free bluray/dvd “deals”, where the individual prices are artificially inflated to almost double the normal price.
I’m surprised that games are such a big part of their business , i wouldn’t have thought it given that the display of games in-store at my local HMV seems to be an afterthought.. i.e. all games crammed onto a small section in the most remote corner of the store.
chall5
Agree their new games are way too expensive, I did pick up medal of honor for £14 used about 6 months ago which wasnt bad
I do agree also that it will be sad if they go out of business (inevitable unless they do something drastic), where will I go to browse while the Mrs is clothes shopping?
Topov81
Fond memories as I worked at HMV between 1995-97… in fact my interview was on the day the Saturn launched. I remember convincing our store manager to double our pre-order allocation of PS1s, and we still sold out by lunchtime. The trouble with HMV is they’ve been relying heavily on games since the CD market collapsed… Top 40 singles chart anyone ?
With the likes of Amazon, Play & ShopTo online, supermarkets that discount heavily, and Game/Blockbuster/Gamestation/CeX mopping up the 2nd hand market, I don’t really see the need for HMV anymore :(
Dimpoc
HMV is too expensive for most things. It’s a gonna.
Mickey2010
Not surprised at all the only time i think i see good deals on at game are in the January sales!! i picked up the likes of Pure for £3 and the saboteur for £5
Rocket_345
HMV are stupidly priced. I remember whilst looking for series 1-5 of hustle it was cheaper to buy them all on Play.com than buy series 1 from HMV. Ridiculous.
Awayze
HMV prices are soo high!!
They don’t stock much metal apart from the super popular bands like Metallica, Linkin Park, Guns N Roses etc
Its a well known fact the metal fans won’t pirate music as much as the local chav which is what the charts are full off, music for chavs!
I bought Metallica’s The Black Album from there even though it was cheaper on the internet.
Crazy_Del
I never EVER shop in HMV CDs, DVDs and Games all I get are Online shop and ASDA they are like 20 – 50% off
I think I saw Star Trek Movie Box Set at £70, I got mine £35 on Play.com (last year that was)
wuntunzee
maybe if they sold PSN £20 vouchers at £18 or at the very least £20 and not £25, they might have me as a customer.
idiots.