![](\"http:\/\/www.musicweek.com\/Pictures\/web\/g\/l\/q\/HMVstore.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
HMV has affirmed its support for the entertainment sector, which it says remains \u201cat the heart of its offer\u201d, just one day after announcing the closure of 60 stores across the group.The closures will take place across HMV and book retailer Waterstone\u2019s, with 40 HMVs out of 300 and 20 Waterstone\u2019s set to close over the next 12 months.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
The news shocked the music industry and CEO Simon Fox spent much of the day reassuring observers that HMV will do all it can to make sure closures don\u2019t dramatically affect sales.<\/p>\n
He told Music Week that the company needed to take these steps to make sure it remains a profitable, long-term business, adding, \u201cWe think the sales impact [of these closures] will be minimised by our actions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, the company has released a statement in which it points out that the closures represent less than 10% of its combined estate and will largely take place \u201cin large-city conurbations and may be in close proximity to each other – thus resulting in a degree of duplication in relation to local demand\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis move in no way signals any intention to pull out of entertainment retail, which remains at the heart of our offer, and is ultimately aimed at safeguarding our core business as we continue our transformation into a broad-based entertainment brand that now also encompasses live music venues and festivals,\u201d it adds.<\/p>\n
PIAS sales director Richard Sefton was quick to defend the chain, which he calls \u201cthe last bastion of traditional high street retail\u201d. \u201cIt is still a secure and very strong business. It is a significant part of our business,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Retail analysts, however, were less positive. Arden\u2019s Nick Bubb calls the news \u201cdepressing\u201d as HMV warned on profits and said it was close to breaching bank covenants.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are going to have to do something to slash the debt and I am not sure that closing stores will do that,\u201d he tells Music Week. The most likely outcome, he believes, is that HMV will sell off Waterstone\u2019s in a bid to reduce debt.<\/p>\n
Source: Music Week<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HMV has affirmed its support for the entertainment sector, which it says remains \u201cat the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}