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HMV snaps up Fopp stores

31.07.07 Graeme Neill

Collapsed retail chain Fopp has been saved by the HMV Group, which has bought six stores, its website and brand name from administrators Ernst & Young for an undisclosed fee. The stores, in Cambridge, Edinburgh (pictured above), Glasgow, London’s Covent Garden, Manchester and Nottingham, will continue to trade under the Fopp name and will retain the same product mix—including books—and customer offers as Fopp had.

The purchase of five of the stores has been finalised but the retailer is still seeking the consent of the landlord of the Covent Garden branch to reopen the store. The business will be run separately to HMV’s music retailing business.

A spokesman for HMV said he hoped the stores would open as soon as possible. “It will be a matter of weeks if we can,” he said. “We want the stores to have the same product mix and customer offers that they came to expect from Fopp. The overriding aim is to preserve the brand’s integrity.” The move will create around 70 jobs, which HMV hopes to fill with former Fopp staff. David Pryde, former m.d. of Fopp, will not be rehired to head the business. Instead the HMV board will have responsibility for the six stores.

It is unclear who will head up Fopp’s book buying team and website. Since the retailer went into administration last month, Waterstone’s has hired two of its staff. Fopp book buyer Sarah Callaghan was hired to work initially on children’s books within its commercial team and Matt Bradbeer, Fopp’s former head of e-commerce, joined Waterstone’s as its new head of internet operations. The HMV spokesman said they had yet to replace both vacancies.

A spokesperson for Ernst & Young said that money raised from the sale of the stores, brand name and website would be used to partly pay off the creditors of the failed retailer. She added that it was unlikely that the remaining stores would be taken over, either by HMV or another business.
Stock from the remaining 75 Fopp and Music Zone stores is currently being relocated to a central warehouse in Stoke. Around 75% of the book stock was bought on firm sale. The remaining quarter will be returned to the relevant publishers once the administration process is completed.

This morning HMV announced that it had sold the 62-store strong wing of its Japanese business for £70m. HMV c.e.o. Simon Fox said that the sale would allow the retailer to focus on the markets where it has “market-leading positions”.

HMV Graeme Neill Fopp

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