If you’ve ever been to London then there is a pretty good chance you went to HMV Oxford Street, it’s one of the biggest stores on the famous street and a major tourist attraction. Sadly the administrators for the troubled HMV group will be considering offers of between £6m – £9m on Friday for the lease of the store.
Although the sale is not certain a number of chains have expressed interest including H&M, Zara, Uniqlo and JD Sports. All of these chains already have large stores in the street.
According to The Guardian HMV Oxford Street turns over a profit of around £1.3 million so although it’s in the black it looks like Hilco have decided they would rather have £6m – £9m in the bank now rather than continue to run the store at a profit.
The Guardian also reports that the administrators may reduce the number of HMV stores nationwide from 230 to just 60.
If the HMV Oxford Street closes it truly will be an end of an era, the store has hosted hundreds of live gigs including Madonna, Coldplay and Blur. I personally can remember travelling down to London over twenty five years ago and having a good rummage through the endless aisles of music.
Sad times, our thoughts are with the hundreds of staff at the giant store.
Source: The Guardian
Alex C
Weren’t you banned from there for fighting with an X-factor contestant or something?
Tuffcub
No that was GAME Oxford street :)
hazelam
who won? ^_^
freezebug2
Lmao
Must admit though, a lot of those contestants would benefit from a reality slap.
The Lone Steven
Didn’t he also ruin another celeb’s promotional thingy by accidentally bumping into them and saying the game is going to be rubbish?
avengerrr
It’s strange why 6-9 mil is more important than the 1.3 mil profit as surely the profit would be better security against debt and also a long term financial margin. Does Hilco seriously expect to be able to accrue such profits across other London stores because I’m sure there would be some negation in overall profits across London stores.
avengerrr
I probably should have phrased it better. Surely if the consumer levels of that store (if it closed) would begin to spread to other HMV London stores and increase the other stores profits. But the other stores increased profits probably wouldn’t add up to 1.3 mil.
Tuffcub
Well the only other HMV left in central London is in Picadilly.
GhostViper
To bad :( One of my favorite shops to shop in when on holiday in London.
Kennykazey
Why not close down the lesser stores with worse profit? It seems weird to bring down the flagship so early.
Tuffcub
Unless you’re trying to flog everything off and make as much money before closing the brand altogether….
gazzagb
Hmm, I wonder what would move in there, it’s a massive store.
Awayze
I’ve never been to London :(
wirralsman
As long as it doesn’t become a Tesco