HMV buys 14 Zavvi stores
HMV has bought 14 shops from Zavvi, its rival that fell into adminstration last month.
The deal for nine UK stores, including the Crewe branch, and five in Ireland was understood to be worth £700,000. HMV will take on 269 staff from the collapsed retailer.
Manchester-based joint administrator Tom Jack of Ernst & Young said: “This is a great result for the employees and customers of the stores concerned. Some 269 employees will transfer across to HMV immediately and over the course of the next two weeks these Zavvi stores will be rebranded.”
He added the administrators were continuing discussions with a number of interested parties and are optimistic about selling more shops and preserving jobs.
Zavvi continues to trade with 63 stores in the UK and five in Ireland. Zavvi was formed from a management buyout of Virgin Megastores last year. It was the UK’s largest independent entertainment retailer selling CDs and DVDs at 114 stores across the UK. It had 3,400 staff, 1,052 of them temporary.
It suffered when its main supplier, Woolworths-owned Entertainment UK, went into administration in November. The business was forced to find new suppliers and struggled to arrange favourable credit terms.
