HMV sold to Sunrise Records
Administrators for HMV have confirmed that the entertainment retailer has been sold to Canadian business Sunrise Records & Entertainment.
Sunrise will acquire 100 stores across the UK and 1,487 store and head office staff will transfer as part of the transaction. Following the sale, the stores will continue to trade as HMV, with four stores continuing to trade under the Fopp fascia.
Established in 1977, Sunrise acquired HMV’s Canadian business out of administration in 2017.
Doug Putman, chief executive of Sunrise Records, said: “We are delighted to acquire the most iconic music and entertainment business in the UK and add nearly 1,500 employees to our growing team. By catering to music and entertainment lovers, we are incredibly excited about the opportunity to engage customers with a diverse range of physical format content, and replicate our success in Canada.“
However, some 27 stores have not been included in the sale and will close “with immediate effect”. This will result in 455 redundancies. The administrators said they will be retaining a further 122 employees within HMV’s warehouse functions to help them wind down operations.
HMV went into administration in December following weak Christmas sales.
Will Wright, partner at KPMG and joint administrator, said: “We are pleased to confirm this sale which, after a complex process, secures the continued trading of the majority of the business. Our immediate concern is now to support those employees that have unfortunately been made redundant.”
