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Tuesday 31 July 2007, 11:37 | By CMU Editorial
HMV buys six Fopp stores
Business News Deals HMV Timeline Retail
HMV will buy the Fopp brand and six of its stores. The deal with the former indie retailer’s administrators Ernst & Young will see the six former Fopp stores in question reopen as Fopp asap. The purchase also means that 70 of the redundant Fopp workforce should be offered their jobs back.
A spokesman for HMV is quoted thus: “The Fopp stores we are purchasing have all traded profitably, whilst ownership of the brand will enable us preserve Fopp’s unique identity and trading culture. These stores will operate independently of the main HMV chain in order to preserve their distinct customer offer. Fopp is well regarded by many music and entertainment consumers, enjoying strong local awareness and appeal, and we’re pleased that we will be able to preserve the brand and product offer through the stores and online”.
READ MORE ABOUT: Fopp | HMV
Monday 23 July 2007, 11:34 | By CMU Editorial
HMV may buy some Fopp stores, and maybe Fopp brand
Business News HMV Timeline Retail
Music Week reports that HMV is considering purchasing several former Fopp stores from the former indie trader’s administrators Ernst & Young.
Meanwhile Retail Week is reporting that HMV is considering buying the Fopp brand also, which possibly means that those Fopp stores it may or may not acquire would continue to operate under that name.
READ MORE ABOUT: Fopp | HMV
Monday 2 July 2007, 11:30 | By CMU Editorial
Fopp goes into administration
Business News HMV Timeline Retail
Now this is, I’m sure you’ll agree, all a bit sad. Independent music retailer Fopp, whose massive expansion in recent years made them less ‘independent’ and more one of the big boys of UK music retail, are no more.
After two weeks of speculation about the future of the popular music chain, all of which followed an announcement that the company was putting all its book ordering on hold and then a sudden chain-wide stock check that necessitated closing stores on a busy Friday afternoon, Fopp bosses confirmed on Friday that the company was in administration.
A spokesman for the firm simply told reporters: “It is with great regret that we announce the closure of Fopp”, while Colin Dempster of the company’s joint administrators Ernst & Young said: “The stores have been closed by management and shop staff sent home. We are currently assessing the financial position of the companies; once this has been completed we will have a better idea of the future of the businesses”.
The record chain went into administration less than a week after the firm’s top man and majority shareholder, Gordon Montgomery, told reporters that, erm, his company wasn’t going into administration. Following the announcement the chain was closing the company’s spokesman claimed the firm was, in fact, profitable but that it had failed to secure support from its stakeholders and suppliers during a period of financial difficulty. Presumably that included their bank HBOS, who they were known to have been in discussions with for at least a week about the future of the business.
Reports suggest that while employees of the company had, like much of the industry, become suspicious about the future of the chain, they were still pretty shocked about the overnight closure which came the day before pay day, leaving most of them out of pocket, in the short term at least. It now remains to be seen what happens to the company, its stores and its employees. Fopp remains a respected brand among music fans, but given the state of the music retail sector – with big boy HMV reporting its own financial hardships just last week – it will be interesting to see if anyone out there is actually interested in acquiring a 100+ store record shop company. When Fopp’s then bigger rival Music Zone went into liquidation earlier in the year it was Fopp that came to the rescue, acquiring 67 of the company’s stores – a decision which some are saying directly led to Fopp’s own downfall.
Whether or not the Fopp brand does, ultimately, live on, this relatively sudden closure of one of the recent success stories of music retail will throw further doubt on the long term future of music retail at large, with most of those trading in the specialist music store sector facing a daily battle to compete with price cutting supermarkets and mail-order websites, not to mention the long term threat of the growing download sector. Which is all rather depressing for a Monday morning, I’m sure you’ll agree.
READ MORE ABOUT: Fopp
