retail ltd type limited company industry retail founded london united kingdom 20 july 1921 1921 07 20 1 headquarters mermaid house puddle dock london 2 united kingdom number of locations 128 stores area served united kingdom canada ireland hong kong key people paul mcgowan chairman products music downloads books video games film television games magazines music fashion technology merchandise cinema revenue 1 956.7 million 2009 3 operating income 70.3 million 2009 3 profit 44.2 million 2009 3 owner hilco number of employees 2 500 2013 4 subsidiaries hmv canada fopp website www.hmv.com hmvdigital.comstore.hmv.com hmv retail ltd formerly hmv group plc is a british entertainment retailing company operating in the united kingdom canada hong kong and ireland . it was listed on the london stock exchange and was a constituent of the ftse fledgling index . the first hmv branded store was opened by the gramophone company on oxford street in 1921 and the hmv name was also used for television and radio sets manufactured from the 1930s onwards . the retail side of the business began to expand in the 1960s and in 1998 was divested from emi the successor to the gramophone company to form what would become hmv group . hmv stands for his master s voice the title of a painting by francis barraud of the dog nipper listening to a cylinder phonograph which was bought by the gramophone company in 1899 . 5 for advertising purposes this was changed to a wind up gramophone and eventually used simply as a silhouette . hmv owned the waterstone s bookshop chain from 1998 until 2011 6 and has owned the music retailer fopp since august 2007 . 7 it purchased a number of former zavvi stores in february 2009 and also branched into live music venue management that year by purchasing mama group . it sold the group in december 2012 . on 15 january 2013 hmv group entered administration . 8 deloitte were appointed to deal with the administration of the company . 9 on 16 january 2013 hmv ireland declared receivership and all irish stores were closed . 10 a week later on 22 january 2013 it was reported that hilco uk would buy the debt of hmv a step towards potentially taking control of the company . 11 the sale of hmv s hong kong and singapore business to private equity firm aid partners was completed on 28 february 2013 . on 5 april 2013 hmv was bought out of administration by hilco uk for an estimated 50 million . 4 contents 1 history 1.1 origins 1.2 expansion 1.3 flotation 1.4 acquisitions 1.5 administration 1.6 hilco ownership 2 operations 3 product range 4 loyalty programme 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit origins edit a record featuring the his master s voice title and nipper the antecedents of hmv began in the 1890s at the dawn of the disc gramophone . by 1902 it had become the beginnings of the gramophone company . in february 1907 they commenced the building of a new dedicated record factory at hayes middlesex . disc records were sold in music shops and independent retailers at this time . in 1921 the gramophone company opened the first dedicated hmv shop in oxford street 12 london in a former men s clothing shop ; the composer edward elgar participated in the opening ceremonies . 13 in march 1931 the gramophone company merged with columbia graphophone company to form electric and musical industries ltd emi . 5 from the 1930s onwards hmv manufactured radio and television sets and radiograms under the hmv and marconiphone brand names in their factory in hayes middlesex . expansion edit hmv s former flagship branch on oxford street london in 1966 hmv began expanding its retail operations in london . throughout the 1970s the company continued to expand doubling in size and in six years became the country s leading specialist music retailers . it faced new competition however from virgin megastores established in 1976 and our price established in 1972 . subsequently hmv overtook our price in popularity and threatened their existence having established a chain of newer larger stores . the company opened its flagship store at a new location on oxford street in 1986 . it was the largest record store in the world at the time and the official opening was attended by bob geldof and michael hutchence . 14 growth continued for a third decade into the 1990s with the company reaching over 320 stores . 14 hmv celebrated its 75 year anniversary in 1996 . 5 in february 1998 emi entered into a joint venture with advent international to form hmv media group led by alan giles which acquired hmv s stores and dillons leaving emi with a holding of around 45 % . 15 the new joint venture then bought the waterstone s chain of bookshops to merge with dillons . 16 flotation edit by 2002 emi s holding in hmv media was 43 % with advent international owning 40 % and management the remainder . 17 the company floated on the london stock exchange later in the year as hmv group plc leaving emi with only a token holding . 18 the group became susceptible to a takeover following a poor period of trading up to christmas 2005 . private equity firm permira made a 762 million conditional bid for the group based on 190p a share on 7 february 2006 which was rejected by hmv as an insufficient valuation of the company . 19 permira made a second offer which increased the value although hmv declined it on 13 march 2006 subsequently issuing a statement that the offer undervalued the medium and long term prospects for the company 20 resulting in permira withdrawing from bidding . 21 acquisitions edit a large hmv branch in leeds incorporating an orange shop in 2006 the hmv group purchased the ottakar s book chain and merged it into waterstone s. the merger tied into hmv s strategy for growth as many of the ottakar s branches were in smaller towns and outposts . the competition commission provisionally cleared hmv group through waterstone s for takeover of the ottakar s group on 30 march 2006 stating that the takeover would not result in a substantial lessening of competition . 22 waterstone s then announced that it had successfully negotiated a takeover of ottakar s on 31 may 2006 . 23 all 130 ottakar s stores were rebranded as waterstone s prior to christmas 2006 . in march 2007 new group ceo simon fox announced a 10 % reduction over three years in the enlarged waterstone s total store space comprising mostly dual location shops created by the acquisition of ottakar s. 24 on 29 june 2007 the entertainment retailer fopp went into administration with the closure of 81 stores and 800 staff made redundant . 25 on 31 july hmv bought the brand and six stores that it said had traded profitably saving around 70 jobs . 26 on 24 december 2008 christmas eve hmv s rival zavvi also an entertainment retailer entered administration . on 14 january 2009 a placing announcement by hmv revealed that they intended to acquire 14 of zavvi s stores . 27 on 18 february 2009 five additional zavvi stores were purchased by hmv group to be rebranded as hmv outlets . an additional former zavvi store in exeter s princesshay development was also added . 28 the acquisitions were investigated and cleared by the office of fair trading in april 2009 . 29 in the 2008 mcv industry excellence awards hmv was given the title entertainment retailer of the year . 30 in january 2009 hmv bought a 50 % stake in mama group forming a joint venture with the group called the mean fiddler group . 31 the deal introduced the hmv brand to live music venues including the hammersmith apollo . 32 on 23 december 2009 it bought the whole of the mama group in a live music takeover deal worth 46 million . 33 hmv bought 50 % of 7digital for 7.7 million in september 2009 as part of a strategy to increase its digital content offering . 7digital provided hmv s music download service and the company planned to introduce an e books service for waterstone s. 34 on 5 january 2011 hmv announced that profits would be at the lower end of analysts forecasts due to falling sales resulting in the share price falling by 20 % 35 and an announcement of the group s intention to close 40 hmv stores as well as 20 waterstone s stores mainly in towns and cities where the company operates at multiple locations . the first of the store closures began at the end of january 2011 . 36 the sale of waterstone s to a & nn capital fund management for 53 million was completed on 29 june 2011 and was approved by the vast majority of shareholders at an emergency general meeting . 37 hmv sold the hammersmith apollo to aeg live and eventim in may 2012 for 32 million . 38 it sold the remainder of mama group to lloyds development capital in december 2012 for 7.3 million which also included the company s 50 % stake in mean fiddler group . 39 administration edit a branch in wakefield closing as part of the group administration march 2013 . on 15 january 2013 hmv group appointed deloitte as company administrators and suspended shares 8 putting its 4 350 uk employees at the risk of redundancy . 9 40 store gift vouchers were initially declared void since holders are classified as unsecured creditors to whom the company owe the value 41 but were accepted again from 22 january 2013 . 42 hmv ireland followed by declaring receivership on 16 january 2013 which required the company under irish law to close all its stores immediately . 10 restructuring firm hilco uk bought hmv s debt from its creditors the royal bank of scotland and lloyds banking group as a step towards potentially taking control of the company . 43 it was revealed that the total debt hilco had bought amounted to around 110 million 44 and that hmv owed around 20 million in tax to hm revenue and customs at the time of its entry into administration . 45 on 31 january 2013 it was reported that 190 redundancies had been made at the head office and distribution centres . 46 on 7 february 2013 deloitte confirmed that 66 stores had been identified for closure . 47 no fixed date was given for the closures but they were expected to take place in the following two months . the next day deloitte confirmed that an additional 60 redundancies including the chief executive trevor moore had been made at the group s head offices in london marlow and solihull . 48 deloitte confirmed on 20 february 2013 that an additional 37 stores would close . 49 on 26 february 2013 6 stores were sold to supermarket chain morrisons . 50 by 23 march 2013 deloitte were seeking to complete a deal to sell 120 stores as a going concern . 51 the decision to close several stores that had previously been identified for closure including stockport and grimsby 52 were reversed following talks with landlords . 53 hilco ownership edit hmv reopened its original store in oxford street in october 2013 . on 5 april 2013 hilco uk announced that it had acquired hmv taking the company out of administration and saving 141 of its stores and around 2 500 jobs . the total included 25 stores that had previously been selected for closure by deloitte during the administration process . all 9 fopp stores which hmv owned were also included in the purchase . hilco also stated that it hoped to reopen an hmv store in ireland following the closure of