HMV set for administration

[therealjaxon]

Mines gone, along with any chance of getting my job back

What....you used to work in Spud-u-like? ( )

[Blakey]

My nearest store's staying open then, good news for me.

[therealjaxon]

HMV games team left bare by redundancies

HMV video games team is now just a 'skeleton crew' following the fresh round of redundancies at the company's HQ.

Andy Pinder (games category manager), Nick Ashley, Will Cox and Ed Lee have all left the firm, leaving just two buyers.

Mike Fethers and Ewan Pinder left the games team last week, along with social media whizz Laura Yates.

The team has departed alongside CEO Trevor Moore and marketing boss Mark Hodgkinson.

Deloitte's Nick Edwards said: “Following our announcement of the closure of 66 stores yesterday, it has been necessary to consider the head office support required for the reduced store portfolio. As a result of this review, a number of redundancies at the head office have been made.

"This has been a difficult decision, but a necessary one in restructuring the business. We would like to express our gratitude to staff for their continued support during the administration.”

Our thoughts go out to the team and staff at HMV's head office and its stores throughout the country.

HMV CEO Trevor Moore out as 60 more are made redundant

HMV has made a further 60 members of its HQ redundant, including the firm's CEO Trevor Moore.

It follows yesterday's news that 66 stores are being closed, impacting 930 employees.

Mark Hodgkinson, the firm's new marketing director, is also part of the redundancies. As is head of games Andy Pinder.

45 of the staff are from the firm's central head office in London, while a further 15 are from other offices around the country. According to an MCV source at the firm only a 'skeleton crew' remain, and some of the departures have been from the company's video games team.

Trevor Moore only joined HMV last September. The former Jessops boss replaced Simon Fox as CEO.

HMV is fighting for survival having entered administration last month. Hilco UK is expected to purchase the firm having bought the company's debt, but there's still no news of a buy-out.

UPDATE: HMV's games team is now down to just two people. Staff that have been made redundant from the games team includes head of games Andy Pinder, and buyers Nick Ashley, Will Cox and Ed Lee.

[Mr Marvellous]

Rofl former Jessops boss, his cv will be looking great

[therealjaxon]

AKA "Kiss of Death"

[therealjaxon]

Future of video games at HMV in doubt as it decimates team

The UK games trade is concerned over the latest round of redundanciesat beleaguered retail giant HMV.

The firm has cut down the group of ten games buyers and merchandisers down to just two.

Amongst the redundancies were head of technology and games Ewan Pinder and games category manager Andy Pinder.

Mike Fethers, Nick Ashley, Will Cox and Ed Lee have also departed.

Meanwhile, three of the firm’s Gamerbase outlets – Edinburgh, Manchster and Trocadero – are being closed as part of the firm’s 66 store closures. And Gamerbase boss Dominic Mulroy has resigned from the company and joined GAME on Tuesday this week (see box, right).

One HMV exec told MCV this week that it “doesn’t look good for games at HMV. I’d have to speculate that the potential buyers don’t see it as a big player in the future of the company.”



GAME BOOSTED BY MULROY HIRE

HMV’s loss turns out to be Game Retail’s gain.

With the entertainment chain struggling, the games specialist has
hired Dominic Mulroy as senior business development manager.

Mulroy devised Gamerbase, the in-store retail concept for competitive gaming,
which was bought by HMV and rolled out across stores in London,
Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

A statement from GAME said: “We can confirm that Dominic has come
on board and his role will be focused on developing new areas of the
business where we can better deliver for the gaming community.”



Publishers are also concerned. One UK boss at a major global games publisher told MCV: “I am not sure how they can just credibly continue with just two people. How do you bounce back from this?

“Over the last year the games industry hasn’t quite given HMV the same level of support as the music and DVD guys. As a company looking to move forward and reshape its business, it is understandable that games might be the ones to suffer. But hopefully that will change when the new consoles come out. We’ll be sorry to see them go.”

The Euro boss at one of the biggest games industry corporations added: “It does look as if gaming is losing some focus within HMV. However, from my experience in situations like this the initial changes don’t always reflect the longer term focus.

“As an industry we need to ensure we keep connected to the key decision makers.”

At the time of going to press HMV was still in administration, with Hilco UK in prime position to acquire the company. The redundancies announced last week included CEO Trevor Moore and marketing director Mark Hodgkinson.

[therealjaxon]

UPDATED: Further 37 HMV shops to close; Full list here

Administrator Deloitte has confirmed the intended closure of an additional 37 HMV stores.

It has not yet announced which stores will be closing or when they will shut their doors. However, it will mean a further 464 staff will lose their jobs.

The decision will leave HMV with around 116 UK stores.

These latest losses come less than two weeks after the last round of closures that saw around 70 outlets shutting up shop.

It’s disappointing news for the chain, which just last week announced that fresh deals had been struck with suppliers to ensure that key new products would still be sold in store.

It’s also a further blow for games, which appear to have been largely frozen out as the retailer looks to restructure for the future.

However, these latest developments may bring the retailer closer to the point where Hilco feels it can progress with its acquisition. The company acquired HMV’s debt way back on January 22nd but is understood to be reluctant to make a move until HMV has been trimmed to the point where it can operate more efficiently.

UPDATE: And here's the list of store closures: Ashford, Basildon, Bolton, Cheltenham, East Kilbride, Enfield, Folkestone, Glasgow Argyle, Gloucester, Grimsby, Hatfield Galleria, Heathrow T5 Departure Level, Heathrow Terminal 1, Heathrow Terminal 3, Heathrow Terminal 4, Hemel Hempstead, High Wycombe, Isle of Wight, Lancaster, Leadenhall, Mansfield, Middlesbrough, Newbury, Newcastle Silverlink, Newport, Nuneaton, Redditch, Salisbury, Scarborough, Southport, Stafford, Staines, Stockport, Swindon, Taunton, Torquay, Woking.

GAME still eying up HMV store acquisitions

The boss of retailer GAME has reiterated that the chain could yet move to acquire store sites from HMV.

Chief executive Martyn Gibbs made a similar claim last month. And if it is planning a move, it had best get a move on – HMV confirmed a fresh round of store closures today that roughly halves the number of outlets it have compared to when it fell into administration.

In addition, GAME could acquire some former Jessops and Blockbuster stores, too.

“We’re constantly reviewing our store portfolio, and where there are opportunities with HMV, Jessops and Blockbuster we’ll look at them,” Gibbs told Retail Week.

Gibbs added that GAME is hoping to expand its market share by 30 per cent through growing its digital games presence. The retailer already sells download codes in store and online.

The retail boss also spoke positively of GAME’s current owners OpCapita, saying that under them “transformations have been completed quickly” and that “there’s not been anything that I have tabled that hasn’t been passed”.

Confident of an upturn in the market, GAME is currently rolling out new store designs that will see tills pushed to the back to “improve the flow of shoppers” and the implementation of demo-focused ‘challenge areas’.

180 of its 330 UK stores have been refitted in the last 18 months.

[Pious the chosen]

Bloody hell how many HMVs did Heathrow have

[therealjaxon]

That's their trouble I suppose - shop overload. Would people really be interested in buying, dvds, cds, games etc before going on holiday?

[therealjaxon]

HMV: The full list of stores saved

HMV has revealed a list of the 141 stores that will be saved from closure.

The remaining stores are listed below. The firm was acquired by Hilco UK this morning in a deal worth £50m.

In total 81 HMV outlets have been closed from a store estate of 222.

“We are delighted to have completed the sale of HMV’s UK retail business to Hilco UK," said joint administrator Nick Edwards.

"The sale of the restructured portfolio secures the employment of 2,643 staff, saves one of the world's most iconic retail brands and provides a solid financial footing on which the business can be taken forward. We wish the Hilco UK and HMV teams every success with the business. I would like to thank all those stakeholders that have worked with us during the administration, but in particular the staff, suppliers and landlords for their support in making this deal possible.”


THE SAVED HMV STORES:

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 90 Market Street
Manchester Trafford
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.

FOPP Bristol
FOPP Cambridge
FOPP Covent Garden
FOPP Edinburgh
FOPP Glasgow Byres Road
FOPP Glasgow Union Street
FOPP Gower Street London
FOPP Manchester
FOPP Nottingham

[Pious the chosen]

My local was saved Good to know the best retailer for anime was saved after all.

[therealjaxon]

So were both mine - I'd be happy for them had I of managed to bag a £200 Wii U off 'em

[maf-me-quick]

HMV being saved is all well and good, but unless someone has big plans for the business I fail to see the point.

itunes killed CD's, Netflix/LoveFilm killed videos, and they still didn't understand games or their pricing of games last time I went in there.

I don't want HMV to go away I just don't know what you do with it.

[therealjaxon]

I'm sure they have plans, they wouldn't of gone to the trouble if it wasn't viable. I wouldn't expect them to sell games in store though - stuff is so much cheaper online, wasn't that the reason why they sold off all the Wii U's as well?

[maf-me-quick]

I thought they sold off all the Wii U's for quick money. That might read like sarcasm but that's all I read in to it.