Sunrise Records owner Doug Putman has emerged victorious in the bid to save HMV, and will buy 100 stores out of administration, while closing 27. The acquisition will save nearly 1.5k jobs, and part of Putman’s plan to revive the chain will be to stock more vinyl and deep catalog.
The 27 closures will result in 455 redundancies and staff will be told today which stores are closing. HMV has slimmed down considerably since it first fell into administration in 2013, when 250 stores were trimmed to 127 after it was saved by restructuring firm Hilco.
Putnam told BBC Radio 4’s Today program, “people like to come into a store, have an experience, talk with someone who understands music, loves music, loves video and entertainment. If you think online is the only future I don’t think that is the case. There is so much you get from come into a store that you can’t get online.”
