If this in wrong forum can someone please move it it? I just remember HMV related news being posted here before.

 

BBC News

 

Shares in music and books retailer HMV Group have fallen 24% after revealing falling sales, weak profits and trouble meeting the terms of a bank loan.

 

The firm plans to close 60 stores - which include Waterstone's bookshops - in the next 12 months in order to get costs under control.

 

It said Christmas sales were down 10%, and warned profits would be at the lower end of forecasts.

 

Business was hit by the severe weather and "challenging trading conditions".

 

Sales for the crucial five weeks to 1 January were down 10% on last year, due to a 13% slump at its HMV music stores.

 

Entertainment market

 

HMV also said it was struggling to avoid breaching the terms of a loan.

 

 

"The board now expects that compliance with the April covenant test under the group's bank facility will be tight and is taking further mitigating actions during the next four months to address this," the company said in its trading statement, which was issued a week earlier than planned.

 

As well as the store closures, HMV said it would implement other cost-cutting measures that would save it a further £10m per year.

 

It said profits for the year to April would be at the bottom end of the £46m-60m range expected by markets.

 

Although the company partly blamed the snow for the poor result, it conceded that underlying demand for its CDs, DVDs and games was weaker than hoped, and also pointed to "well-reported consumer headwinds as we enter 2011".

 

"The pace of change in the markets in which we operate underlines the urgency with which we must continue to transform this business," said the firm's chief executive Simon Fox.

 

Meanwhile, sales at its Waterstone's bookstores appeared to have stabilised, and were unchanged during the Christmas period compared with a year ago.

 

The company attributed this "pleasing" result to turnaround actions implemented last year.

 

Games Workshop

Separately, fellow retailer Games Workshop said that it was also facing tough trading conditions in the entertainment market.

 

Sales of its fantasy figurines and other products fell 4% in the six months to 28 November compared with a year earlier.

 

The company further warned that "difficult trading conditions since that time mean that this shortfall is unlikely to be recovered by the year end".

 

As a result, the firm feared that profits for the year to May were unlikely to meet market expectations.

 

Shares in Games Workshop fell 10% at the start of trading in London.

Ouch :cry:

I know it's been said countless times but it really is all down to their prices. I saw a Desperate Housewives boxset in there a month or so ago priced at £200. It was £69.99 on amazon :mellow:

I know it's been said countless times but it really is all down to their prices.

 

Definitely!

 

If you wanted a specific item, it's far easier to order it online from the comfort of your own home for a cheaper price, as opposed to travelling to the shop to buy it for a more expensive price. I'd be surprised if this wasn't a major factor.

 

I used to go to my HMV store countless times a year, now I visit Amazon.co.uk countless times a year. :lol:

they better not close the one in scarbough!!!!

The only thing I buy from HMV is 7inch singles (Rare, Picture discs, colour vinyls) online. They probably keep their online site active to buy them.

 

Most of my music I buy from Play and CDwow anyhow. But if you want to buy old catalogue stuff, HMV is the best place for it.

It's not their prices, it's the prices elsewhere. Supermarkets can sell cheaper because they make more money elsewhere, and online retailers can sell cheaper because they've less overheads as they just have a massive warehouse somewhere. Downloads are cheaper because there's no physical or distribution costs. I remember in the 90s when I first started buying CDs that if I got one for £10 that was a good price. I got the NOW albums from about #36 onwards, they always used to cost at least £14. £10 in the late 90s is probably equivelant to about £15 in today's money, yet people now complain when CDs are sold for as much as £10. It's no wonder they can't make any money!

 

It's a sad but inevitable day. :(

I hope they don't close the one where i live - we have a Waterstones and a HMV next to eachother, and if they did, there wouldn't be a record store in a radius of 25 miles of where i live

Their prices in store are really bad. Even members of staff have told me it's better to order online which i do but sometimes i like to actually go in there and catch the sales. They are good for their 2 for 10 dvd's but even that only has a limited time.

 

I am not suprised. HMV isn't a store to go to in this economy.

I don't buy anything from HMV - I/We just normally go into browse. Sometimes you can get a good deal but most of the time as people have said, it's fair easier to buy online. I don't know about their computer games etc but boxsets whether they're one season or an entire series are horribly overpriced, even when the show has been off air for years.

Whenever I go into HMV I just look around, have never bought anything from it because I'll go and buy it on iTunes which is cheaper and better, I like downloads more especially with dance collections where iTunes has the full versions of songs.

 

We ALL knew this day would come, one day they'll be bust like Woolworths and have to go cheap for the final days

Edited January 5, 201114 yr by *xmasG*

It is a shame to see it beginning to go under, HMV was always THE place to buy music.

 

Still good for catalogue browsing but as has been said, why buy chart/ new release albums from HMV when their online site or the other sites, offer much better deals with free delivery.

 

I only ever buy singles from them nowadays (which is rare) or albums in one of their crazy sales. That said they have tried their best to expand much more into books, merchandise and other gadgets.

HMV is dreadful. So expensive

Hmv is expensive but this will cause a massive problem for albums etc.

To be honest, albums aren't that expensive in HMV - especially when you compare it to other countries. Most of the albums are 10 pounds (or cheaper) which is around 11,50 euros. Here in my country, albums sell for atleast 15 euros or higher. So when I go to HMV when I'm in London, I'm also surprised at how cheap everything is.

Although they have some weird things like the Sugababes' Sweet 7 being 16 pounds.

Sad times, the irony is that as soon as the High Street competition has gone online retailers will start to hike their prices.

I only bought one thing in Hmv in 2010(an album I really wanted). I bought a cd single yesterday. That's my Hmv purchase for 2011 then.

If the one in Cambridge closes I shall die. :cry:

There is 3 near me so it should be alright.

I hope they have a really crazy amazingly epic closing sale if the one here closes LOL. Like all albums for 99p.