HMV has been sold to Canadian record shop Sunrise Records

HMV, who went into administration for a second time in late December, has been bought by a Canadian record shop chain.

Doug Putman, who owns Sunrise Records, a chain with over 80 branches across 7 Canadian provinces - including former HMV Canada locations, has purchased 100 of the company’s stores across the UK.

27 stores will close as part of the deal.

The list of shops facing closure is:
Ayr
Bath
Bluewater
Bristol Cribbs
Chichester
Exeter Princesshay
FOPP Glasgow Byres
FOPP Manchester
FOPP Oxford
Glasgow Braehead
Guernsey
Hereford
Manchester Trafford
Merry Hill
London Oxford Street
Peterborough Queensgate
Plymouth Drake Circus
Reading
Sheffield Meadowhall
Southport
Thurrock
Tunbridge Wells
Uxbridge
Watford
Westfield London
Wimbledon

“We would have loved to [keep them open],” Putman said, “but unfortunately as rents continue to grow and go up, it’s just not feasible to keep those stores. You can only lose so much money on those stores before you need to make a change. Unfortunately, rents are just very high at this time.

“If we couldn’t see a way forward of making that store break even then it just didn’t make sense to keep it on.”

Speaking to the BBC, Putman also confirmed the name HMV will remain and there’ll be a focus on vinyl.