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Business News HMV Timeline Retail
HMV returns to original London store tomorrow
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 27 September 2013
HMV will return at 363 Oxford Street tomorrow in a very clever bit of marketing spin from the new owners of the flagging entertainment retail brand that sees what is actually a floorspace-downsize move presented as a triumphant return to the music seller’s original home. Well, always good to get some pomp out of the circumstance.
The management team put in place by that new HMV owner Hilco might, possibly rightly, argue that the shift of its flagship London store along Oxford Street to its smaller original base is symbolic of their wider strategy to rescue the firm: keep costs down where you can and exploit HMV’s heritage as much as possible.
The fact that HMV originally departed its 363 Oxford Street base – nearly 80 years after it was opened by Edward Elgar – in 2000 is also possibly noteworthy, given it was arguably decisions being made by a rather arrogant (and digitally naïve) HMV management around about that time that ultimately sealed the firm’s fate, and its subsequent collapse into administration earlier this year.
For the new guard at HMV the return to 363 Oxford Street kicks off a relaunch for the streamlined company, which needs to perform well in the all important Christmas quarter even now that it’s in private ownership. Although the revamped 363 Oxford Street shop opens tomorrow, a formal launch event will take place later in October, with a special series of in-stores planned around the country.
