HMV buys Fopp brand and stores
HMV has bought the Fopp brand and up to six of its stores from administrator Ernst & Young, according to Music Week.
The retail giant needs consent from the landlords to re-open branches in Cambridge, Edinburgh Rose Street, Glasgow, London Covent Garden, Manchester and Nottingham.
The stores will continue to trade under the Fopp name, saving up to 70 of the 700 jobs which were lost when the company went into administration earlier this month.
"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," says an HMV spokesman. "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."
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why are HMV going down the same doomed track as fopp did?
if they go down the pan then itunes will be all thats left.
:(
So, that's the end of that then.
Fopp RIP
Well pleased about this.
Fopp in Nottingham was really good, and I'll definitely shop there again when I go back.
Well done HMV, I reckon.
HMV
are in serious trouble too.
end of mass physical sales on the horizon?
^no. Shop selectadisc
it is better.
..
they're hardly going down the same track as Fopp. Fopp bought out Music Zone that had God knows how many branches across the country. HMV, which is a considerably bigger company in the first place, is only taking over 6 stores - it's hardly massive over-expansion for a chain that has stores on most high streets.
The demise of Fopp has made me even more determined to support independent record stores, because if we're left with HMV and itunes, I might have to emigrate.
huh
"saving 70 of the 700 jobs which were lost"
does that mean they are going to get robots to run the stores!
they could ship
HMV staff over to 'em
Anyone..
..know which edinburgh branch they'll be reopening?
YAY!!!
NOTTINGHAM!!!!!
not recently
it's barely had anything good in.
Fopp had 135 stores.
HMV have only bought 6.
I hope
HMV doesn't close, I work for the HMV plc and I already have no money as it is!
rose street
like it says up there. ahem
plus you get frowned upon
for picking up OMD records or contesting the incorrect allocation of colour-scheme when purchasing The Maccabees album.
Thats just me though, I can't walk into bars, clubs, hairdressers, clothes shops or Selectadisc without panicing.
You've edited this!
either that or i should pay more attention before asking stupid questions...
Why?
I dont know why HMV brought the Edinburgh Fopp on Rose Street when there are 2 HMVs already on Princes Street, either side of the Fopp.
I wouldnt be surprised if HMV end up buying like 30 of the most profitable Fopps, some are in really good locations without competition.
guilty
.
cambridge??
well as long as it stays like Fopp... they already have the only other record shop in cambridge (virgin doesnt count as its shite.)
you don't need big record shops
i read that rough trade east article, and this
and simply, you don't need big record shops, because retailers like amazon do a bigger selection, cheaper.
smaller, i want to say "specialist" but it's got insulting overtones (god knows why), record shops are likely to be fine because they appeal to the music obsessive, i.e. most of us, and they've got more for us to buy.
selectadisc was sold ages ago
to sister ray
and
fopp had bought around 57 failing Music Zone stores, not 6 profitable stores....
hmv are doing OK
they're just making a few less million each year!
but they're still making millions!
I got a job at HMV
about 2 years ago, and in the interview one of the questions was 'Do you think select a disc is stuck up?'
I responsed with a yes, and the man in the cardigan and greasy hair is the worse.
they'd have been better buying Cockburn Street surely
as someone said, Rose St makes it 3 HMVs within a mile. (Even if they are branding it Fopp). Whereas up on the mound it's a goth/skater/emo paradise = possible customers.
And Union St rather than Byres Road? EH?
cambridge! yay!
although i hope it'll be like the old fopp, and i'm worried it won't.
Unless they have access to sales records
which prove that those shops outsell the more obvious locations, the only explanation can be that they're buying them so as to stop any competitors getting them and thus taking away their profits.
Question
...which I asked elsewhere, but if it was answered I had stopped reading the thread by then...
Did FOPP employees ever get paid for their last month?
no...
he is talking about selectadisc in nottingham
Yay - i think
Seems to me that having visited all of the above stores they were all decent stores (only Tottenham Court Road is missing from the list). Cambridge is a bit rubbish in comparison but it's my local so I ain't complaining.
I'm pretty sure fopp's competitive pricing brought down the cost of CDs in the HMV. I hope they don't conspire to ensure an increase from now on. More than £10 for an album is criminal I tell yous.
The Fopp on Rose Street is really good.
The HMVs are pretty poor, actually.
I hope
Fopp and HIV rot in fucking hell.Fopp treat their staff like shit and and HIV still continue to do so.I've got friends who worked there for nearly 12 years and they were shoved out out the door after years of hard work and deication.Tossers
that's retail for ya
I'm hoping that they will actually maintain the fopp brand and perhaps slowly expand it to take over the existing HMV stores.
The future in brick and mortar music stores is those aimed at music lovers and real value. HMV has neither of these, many albums are price over their original price on amazon a couple of years after release.
hmv will stop trading as a music store with the next 18 months
to focus on technology, games and dvds.. which where they currently make all their money (over 2/3rds of their floor space is dedicated to it)
Fopp will be expanded to be their music/book/dvd retail brand
This is what they are planning (in cities at least where the foppp brand is stronger/more credible)
By better...
do you mean more expensive?
Totally different markets
HMV - especially the one in the St. James's Centre, which is about the same size as the Fopp - are for people buying the latest Snow Patrol CD between trips to Gap and to Next, while Fopp is for people who actually like music, who don't just want the latest "big thing" that they heard in the background of Holloaks.
Nope.
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