Merry Hill's HMV store is axed as 27 shops close nationwide
The HMV store within intu Merry Hill has shut after the chain was sold to Canadian chain Sunrise Records.
The store on the upper mall at the shops complex was one of 27 stores that were not bought by Sunrise, owned by Doug Putman, from the joint administrators of HMV. The store at the Mander Centre in Wolverhampton will remain open.
Sunrise has taken on 100 stores across the UK, and 1,487 store and head office employees are transferring as part of the deal. The stores will continue to trade as HMV, with four stores continuing to trade as Fopp.
The administrators will retain a further 122 employees at warehouse functions to assist them in winding down operations. There are 455 redundancies at the 27 stores that have not been acquired.
A message on the intu Merry Hill HMV store telephone number tells customers to go to the store in the Mander Centre, Wolverhampton, instead.
Will Wright, Neil Gostelow and David Pike from KPMG’s Restructuring practice were appointed joint administrators on December 28.
MR Putman, chieF executive of Sunrise Records, said: “We are delighted to acquire the most iconic music and entertainment business in the UK and add nearly 1,500 employees to our growing team.
"By catering to music and entertainment lovers, we are incredibly excited about the opportunity to engage customers with a diverse range of physical format content, and replicate our success in Canada.
"We know the physical media business is here to stay and we greatly appreciate all the support from the suppliers, landlords, employees and most importantly our customers.”
