HMV squares up to supermarkets

13 April 2012

MUSIC and books retailer HMV today said its market share in music, DVDs and books had increased despite cut-price competition from supermarkets.

'There is no doubt that year-on-year in music and video the supermarkets continue to gain share so... someone else is getting squeezed it certainly isn't HMV,' said Alan Giles, chief executive ahead of today's AGM.

Although HMV did not provide a product breakdown of the sales figures, analysts said strong sales of DVDs at the store chain are offsetting cut-price competition from supermarkets like Tesco.

Sales of DVDs are rising strongly across the UK, and falling DVD player prices have helped boost the take-up of the format. The percentage of UK households owning a DVD player will jump to 78% by 2007 from 45% at the end of last year, according to London-based consultancy ScreenDigest.

In a trading statement, the company said sales grew 5.3% in the first 21 weeks of its new financial year, although the figure was slashed to 3.2% once unfavourable currency swings were taken into account for the global retailer.

The group, which also owns the Waterstone's bookstore chain, said the period from June until mid-September had seen sales improve by 2.5% on a year earlier, up from the 1.4% annual rise achieved in the previous eight weeks.

Chairman Robin Miller, who in June announced a 21.9% rise in annual profits, said the latest figures on sales and market share offered encouragement ahead of the crucial Christmas trading period.

The company, which has 550 outlets worldwide, said HMV in UK and Ireland benefited from the addition of ten new stores as total sales rose 6.8% in the period from June 20 to 18 September.

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