HMV UK in Administration

[digitalbabe]

E-mail sent 1/29/2013:

"
Dear Sir / Madam,

HMV UK Limited (In Administration) (the “Company")

Further to your email, I write to confirm that after an assessment of the Company's financial position, internet orders that have been fully paid for prior to the Company entering into administration will be delivered over the next five working days. Internet orders that have not been paid for will be cancelled and a notification of this cancellation will be sent by e-mail over the next 48 hours.

Should you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact the e-mail address above.

Yours faithfully
For and on behalf of the Company

M S Watson
For R J Harding
Joint Administrator
"


Hilco takes control of HMV-thanks snoo

Link


Former web customer service address was: [email protected]

Phone:

Customer Service: 0207 303 0700

*Multiple members have stated that HMV has said that all pre-orders have been cancelled.

0845 603 8576 (local rate call)
020 8495 4434

Message posted at HMV site:

seen elsewhere via web but thanks to Our members for posting.

Spoiler

"Cross Sale on CD’s, DVD’s, Blu-rays, box sets and games across 230 stores and online comes just weeks after the traditional Boxing Day sale.

Last month the company admitted it is likely to breach its banking covenant - throwing the entertainment retailer's financial future into doubt.

A failure to fulfil lending requirements often signals a company is close to administration, retail analyst Robert Clark told Sky News.

"A lot becomes clear after Christmas - the sale suggests that they didn't have a good one and are trying to reel in as much cash to tie things over," he said.

"I’m not sure how much time they’ve got. I don’t think they’ll be able to sway their bankers. Financial institutions are less likely to show patience in this climate."

But HMV’s chief executive Trevor Moore said in December that closing more stores or placing the business into administration was not "part of our plan" and that the firm was in "constructive discussions" with banks about its performance.

HMV spokesman Gennaro Castaldo told Sky News the Blue Cross Sale was not unusual for this time of year.

"Normally we'd look to run a multi-buy campaign of some kind at this time of year, but we thought we'd freshen our promotional mix up a bit and try something a bit different that will hopefully stand out from all the other sale offers on the high street right now," he said.

The retailer has taken a huge hit in the face of competition from online retailers like Amazon and Play.

But analysts argue that HMV has failed to reinvent itself in the last 15 years and invest in its stores to keep up with the modern technology revolution.

In December, despite numerous promotions,it announced total sales had fallen 13.5%, while like-for-like sales were down 10.2% in the six months to October 27.

HMV reported a loss before tax of £37.3m - an improvement on the £48.1m loss over the same period the year before. But net debt at the 91 year-old company increased from £163.7m to £176.1m.-bank-deadline."

:::: Digitalbabe ::::

Staff: Community Manager
Hidefninja.com

From LV-426 on iPhone

 

[HUBMUSWELL]

They had the wrong man at the top...

HMV is run by Trevor Moore, who recently took over having held the chief executive's post at Jessops.

And Jessops went into Administration last Friday

 

[funkydamo]

I don't get the concern for "UK steelbooks". Not counting game retailers, I have a dozen other UK retailers bookmarked that I have bought steelbooks from. They are still a good earner, as they encourage early full price purchases and allow stores to sell catalogue titles that they'd normally sell at £5-£6 for £10-£12. Having one less shop to use doesn't change supply and demand.

The high street is dying because it's awful. You can't get parked, the opening hours are terrible (9 to 5? Who can actually shop then?), and the choice is limited. The massive rent costs in the centre of towns and cities doesn't help either. I feel bad for anyone losing their job, but times change. Most of the roof thatchers and chimney sweeps lost their jobs as well.

This is not the current government's fault, if anything it's ours. We just don't use this kind of retailer as much any more. It's like when people complain that supermarkets replaced the local butcher and fruit shop. Well, that's because everyone stopped shopping there. If you liked them so much, why did you stop?

to address a few of your points.
yes you may be able to get steelbooks from sites like zavvi and cex (if there are others never mentioned on here then please share your knowledge)
but how about packaging? are they sent in jiffys? or some form of box that offers some protection?
do they accept returns if the steels arrived damged?
i only ever bought from play, hmv and amazon as i trust their after sales and packaging.

the high street, howwver awful you think it to be, it is still a good thing to have an area full of shops where you can see and handle what you want before you part with your cash.
also if you need something today, not in a week.
as for getting parked? overpopulation. the roads are congested too. overpopulation.
9 to 5 is traditional working hours. retail is a sh*te job. low wages, 6/7 days a week, constant attitude from customers. i wouldnt want to do it.
thise massive rents/rates you talk of. that is down to the government ( and that is a contributing factor for all businesses struggling)

as for it being 1 less shop? well yes hmv is only 1 less, but with play.com thats 2 less in less than 7 days. and the 2 most popular.
demend stays the same, but supply clearly drops.
unless you know something we dont?
show me a uk retailer with ANY exclusive steelbooks. let alone one to match play.coms tally from last year.
in fact ass them up. exclusives vs general release from 2012.
apart from the warner wave what was there? footsoldier, ghostbusters, hellboy, evil dead, ted, shawshank, et, jaws, trainspotting, bourne legacy.
a few others.
then how many exclusives from hmv and play? 70 or so?
that is a big reduction.
yes customer trends have changed. but hmv and play had busy websites.
supermarkets are taking over. in Lincoln we have 2 big tesco stores and god knows how many tesco express stores.
then at least 1 of every other major supermarket.
we try to get as much from local business as we can, but its hard when you can everything in 1 place, to warrent adding an hour on to your shopping trip for a fivers worth of veg.

in terms of blaming the government, i dont think the 20% vat helped spending.
and im sure that the extortionately high duty on fuel has helped businesses out.
maybe its not directly the governments fault that huge businesses are closing daily, but indirectly? im not sure they have done 1 positive thing since taking power.

 

[ricster]

Suppliers' refusal to answer HMV's £300m call for help led to administration

Quote:
Tonight's anticipated collapse of HMV came about after suppliers ignored the retailer's latest plea for help.

That's according to The Financial Times, which reports that HMV directors last week asked suppliers for yet another financial lifeline to keep the chain aloft – this time to the tune of £300m.

That was one bailout too many, however, and their refusal has led to HMV's decision tonight to appoint Deloitte as administrator. An official announcement could arrive as soon as tonight.

The chain employs around 4,000 workers and operates 230 UK stores. Most stores will continue trading tomorrow while Deloitte attempts to find a buyer. If this proves unsuccessful, however, store closures could commence imminently.

 

[Starling]

The only way to save the High Street is to have an online shopping tax of an additional 10%. If we want a High Street, there will be a cost to achieve that.

 

[ricster]

The only way to save the High Street is to have an online shopping tax of an additional 10%. If we want a High Street, there will be a cost to achieve that.

Damn car parking is a nightmare as well. £5 for 2 hours where I go. A lot would prefer to sit at home ordering stuff. Shame really.

 

[sproutyrouty]

Bloody hell I have £40 of points and a £35 gift card looks like I just lost £75, however not as bad as people who have just lost jobs

 

[ricster]

Statement

Retailer HMV has filed notice to appoint administrators.

HMV's shares have been suspended from trading on the London Stock Exchange with immediate effect.

It is understood that administrators Deloitte will keep all stores open while it searches for a potential buyer.

Here's HMV's full statement:

On 13 December 2012, the Company announced that as a result of current market trading conditions, the Company faced material uncertainties and that it was probable that the Group would not comply with its banking covenants at the end of January 2013. The Company also stated that it was in discussions with its banks.

Since that date, the Company has continued the discussions with its banks and other key stakeholders to remedy the imminent covenant breach. However, the Board regrets to announce that it has been unable to reach a position where it feels able to continue to trade outside of insolvency protection, and in the circumstances therefore intends to file notice to appoint administrators to the Company and certain of its subsidiaries with immediate effect.

The Directors of the Company understand that it is the intention of the administrators, once appointed, to continue to trade whilst they seek a purchaser for the business.

It is proposed that Nick Edwards, Neville Kahn and Rob Harding, partners of Deloitte LLP, will be appointed as the administrators of the Company and certain of its subsidiaries.

The Company's ordinary shares will be suspended from trading on the London Stock Exchange with immediate effect.

 

[Ricker]

Directors are meeting as we speak, and they're likely to go into administration tomorrow morning. Future Shop, if you know anything about business opportunities, there's a gap in the UK market that needs filling fast

Not Futuresop, they don't ship worldwide, and shipping from Canada is dreadful. IMO

 

[surfury]

Wonder if Rakuten will pick it up on the cheap and weld it with play. That would be nice. Looks like I'm gonna miss out on a few GBP on my Giftcard. Ah well should have used it all up at the weekend.

 

[Rodbull]

Online shopping is the way to go really to much hassle going Instore to purchase some goods ie blu rays etc I was in HMV last week to look for a few steels couldn't find any and didn't bother asking just ordered the Korean versions of RE and total recall from a recomended site on here.

Most my other steels have come from eBay,amazon.it and amazon.fr,amazon UK and RIP Play.com I think I only ever bought one from HMV.

I only mostly use bricks and mortar shops for food and clothes shopping.

---------- Post added at 10:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:21 PM ----------

Wonder if Rakuten will pick it up on the cheap and weld it with play. That would be nice. Looks like I'm gonna miss out on a few GBP on my Giftcard. Ah well should have used it all up at the weekend.

Can't you just go in this week and use it? Or is everything worthless if so there will be many people in the same boat ......I PREDICT A RIOT.......ohno:

 

[funkydamo]

The only way to save the High Street is to have an online shopping tax of an additional 10%. If we want a High Street, there will be a cost to achieve that.

oooor, by drasticly reducing the high rates and taxes dropped on retailers by the greedy con-dems.
and reducing the duty on fuel.
they could achive that by stopping health tourism and managing benefits in a similar fashion to other countries.
also by stoppping all this nonsense 'expenses' for themselves.
i cant claim expenses for my fuel bills and dinner money!
more tax isnt the answer.
they need to get people spending, money moving, thats what keeps the world turning.
best way to get more spending, is by letting people keep more of thier money.
then they can spend it.
which keeps business going.
as it is, they try to claw in as much as they can, suffocating everyone else.
its a fact of life that small businessess fail, the strongest survive.
but when the big boys all start to fall, you know theres something very wrong.
how many unemployed will there be from comet, jesops, hmv and play.com
thousands on the dole, many possibly losing their homes.
its no use saying there are more people in employment than ever before! there are more people than ever before. so it stands to reason.
there are also more people unemployed than ever before.

i imagine amazon are safe, but is anyone else?

i cant believe it. how old are hmv? over 90 years old.
how many stores?
bad management is clearly a factor too, but no way is this down to people downloading music.
i dont know anyone who doesnt buy just as much music and film as ever.
the only ones who may be exclusively on downloads will be the youth, who have little money anyway.
so thier income wont be a factor until our generation have stopped buying.

well, i guess i need to savour my lawless steelbook. possibly the last british great.
its feeling more and more like terminator could have been prophetic, the end is nigh.

 

[zoneism]

Statement

Spoiler

Retailer HMV has filed notice to appoint administrators.

HMV's shares have been suspended from trading on the London Stock Exchange with immediate effect.

It is understood that administrators Deloitte will keep all stores open while it searches for a potential buyer.

Here's HMV's full statement:

On 13 December 2012, the Company announced that as a result of current market trading conditions, the Company faced material uncertainties and that it was probable that the Group would not comply with its banking covenants at the end of January 2013. The Company also stated that it was in discussions with its banks.

Since that date, the Company has continued the discussions with its banks and other key stakeholders to remedy the imminent covenant breach. However, the Board regrets to announce that it has been unable to reach a position where it feels able to continue to trade outside of insolvency protection, and in the circumstances therefore intends to file notice to appoint administrators to the Company and certain of its subsidiaries with immediate effect.

The Directors of the Company understand that it is the intention of the administrators, once appointed, to continue to trade whilst they seek a purchaser for the business.

Spoiler

It is proposed that Nick Edwards, Neville Kahn and Rob Harding, partners of Deloitte LLP, will be appointed as the administrators of the Company and certain of its subsidiaries.

The Company's ordinary shares will be suspended from trading on the London Stock Exchange with immediate effect.

Promising with regards to collecting is the fact the the administrators intend to continue trading in the meantime. If the suppliers have sent the steelbooks to HMV then they could possibly still be sold via HMV

 

[Leo31291]

There used to be 3 HMV stores around my area a decade ago, they closed those stores down and re-scaled, now this is happening Prices were just too high in store so consumers would buy online.

Wishful thinking. Would be nice. Can't see it unfortunately. Amazon too big for anyone to take them on.

More chance of a HDN website selling exclusive steels with UK discs in them.

Time for us to step up to the plate

 

[ricster]

Bad management decisions to be fair has cost them.

The move from Channel Islands to mainland and then switching to TNT post really p off a lot of customers and they switched.

The shoddy packaging they used. Poly bags for steelbooks lost them customers.

Their brain plan of click and collect would have been alright but the online price shot up to th store price, I,e, £16 preorder became £25 on release date.

You couldn't return a damaged item to the store confused a lot of people and put them off. Oh amazon do a swap over chat and I can return the item at many collect+ locations free of charge.

A lot of people unfortunately lost faith in them and switched to others.

 

[surfury]

well, im gonna try to avoid buying anything new in this coutry that will put any cash in the governments pockets now.
amazon.de/.com/ca etc all the way (and cex trade ins, and ebay)
i would so love to abandon this hell hole of a country and move to the states or canada.

the only 2 uk retailers that do exclusive steelbooks gone in under a week.
add that to jessops and comet.... how many jobs gone in under a month???
im sure wh smiths will be gone soon too (they surely dont compete on any level with any of thier competition)
its bang on, supermarkets will be the only places left to buy before long. and no doubt they will be soon be government run.

Fair enough go but get your facts right first !!

To misquote The Buggles somewhat - "Internet killed the High Street Stores" and brought millions of bloody coffee shops instead.

 

[Ashcroft]

to address a few of your points.
yes you may be able to get steelbooks from sites like zavvi and cex (if there are others never mentioned on here then please share your knowledge)
but how about packaging? are they sent in jiffys? or some form of box that offers some protection?

Packaging wasn't one of my points. But, HMV are no better or worse packaging wise than any other UK retailer. Apart from Play, of course. Like everyone, HMV use a seemingly random array of either those flimsy boxes, the A1 cardboard envelopes, or bubble envelopes.

do they accept returns if the steels arrived damged?

The law says they have to. In fact the law says they have to accept a return within 7 days of receipt, for any reason.

the high street, howwver awful you think it to be, it is still a good thing to have an area full of shops where you can see and handle what you want before you part with your cash.
also if you need something today, not in a week.

Thinking like this, is a huge part of the problem. People managing stores like HMV kept thinking like this. And look where it got them.

If this was even remotely true, we would not be having this conversation. We are seeing that people don't actually care about that, at least not for most things. On the whole people want it cheap and they want it as easily as possible.

as for getting parked? overpopulation. the roads are congested too. overpopulation.

If this is supposed to refute my point that parking near a town centre is a nightmare, I'm not sure how.

9 to 5 is traditional working hours. retail is a sh*te job. low wages, 6/7 days a week, constant attitude from customers. i wouldnt want to do it.

I've worked retail, but the quality of the job is irrelevant. 9 - 5 is traditional, yes, and that's another part of the problem. The days of a husband working all day, and a wife being free to shop 9 - 5 are gone. Sticking to those hours because they are traditional just means your market excludes the people with the most disposable income; single full time working young adults.

The high street simply is not moving with the times. All of my in store shopping is done after work. And the only place that is open then, is a supermarket.

thise massive rents/rates you talk of. that is down to the government ( and that is a contributing factor for all businesses struggling)

If your rent is more than you can afford, you move. The city centre is prime real estate, because badly managed companies fall over each other to sign idiotic leases. I agree that council owned retail properties should be kept in check, but the high street isn't the only place to set up shop.

as for it being 1 less shop? well yes hmv is only 1 less, but with play.com thats 2 less in less than 7 days. and the 2 most popular.
demend stays the same, but supply clearly drops.
unless you know something we dont?
show me a uk retailer with ANY exclusive steelbooks. let alone one to match play.coms tally from last year.
in fact ass them up. exclusives vs general release from 2012.
apart from the warner wave what was there? footsoldier, ghostbusters, hellboy, evil dead, ted, shawshank, et, jaws, trainspotting, bourne legacy.
a few others.
then how many exclusives from hmv and play? 70 or so?
that is a big reduction.

Exclusives will just be sold as non-exclusives. Play going means we have less of a direct voice to the studios, so it might mean a few steelbooks that were worldwide exclusives might not have happened, but those are few and far between. Most were released in other countries, and Play or HMV were just the UK supplier. The studios aren't going to stop wanting our money, and steelbooks that are being made anyway will still get a UK release.

yes customer trends have changed. but hmv and play had busy websites.
supermarkets are taking over. in Lincoln we have 2 big tesco stores and god knows how many tesco express stores.
then at least 1 of every other major supermarket.
we try to get as much from local business as we can, but its hard when you can everything in 1 place, to warrent adding an hour on to your shopping trip for a fivers worth of veg.

Exactly. The supermarkets saw what was happening a decade ago, and HMV et al just buried their heads in the sand. While ASDA were building massive stores in cheap areas outside cities, and opening 24 hours, HMV were picking their arse, taking out huge loans, and waiting for CD single sales to rebound.

in terms of blaming the government, i dont think the 20% vat helped spending.
and im sure that the extortionately high duty on fuel has helped businesses out.
maybe its not directly the governments fault that huge businesses are closing daily, but indirectly? im not sure they have done 1 positive thing since taking power.

I mostly agree with you here, but still think that HMV, and the high street in general, is an outdated form of retail, and that no amount of propping them up would have helped.

 

[Dino Last]

French Looper and Skyfall Steelbooks preordered just in case

 

[travid]

French Looper and Skyfall Steelbooks preordered just in case

Wonder when we will know IF we will be receiving our pre orders?

 

[snooloui]

I can't believe this, first Play.com now HMV. It's never going to be the same again

 

[Nyvo]

Very disappointing news. Made a last ditch effort to use my gift vouchers in the Piccadilly Circus store... wouldn't take them. Feel for the staff, they looked completely dejected.