Troubled retailer HMV reported more bad news today after revealing that sales over Christmas fell by over 16 per cent.
Sales at retail in the five weeks to December 31 fell 16.9 per cent, with revenue across the group as a whole falling 16.6 per cent despite a 13 per cent increase in revenue from its HMV Live ticketing business.
In the last nine weeks of the year things were even worse, with revenue falling 18.4 per cent at retail and 18 per cent across the group as a whole. Like-for-like retail sales, which remove the effect of store closures, were down 8.2 per cent in the five weeks to December 31, and 9.8 per cent in the final nine weeks of the year.
While it's an improvement on the rest of the year - sales in the 26 weeks to October 29 were down 17.6 per cent - it's still bleak news for a retailer which admitted last month that slow sales and ongoing economic uncertainty could force it out of business.
The one bright spot on that miserable set of financial results was technology, where sales climbed 42 per cent in the 144 stores refitted to give greater prominence to headphones, speaker-docks and tablets. That rose to 51 per cent in the final five weeks of the year, and in a statement chief executive Simon Fox highlighted the one area of HMV's business that is headed in the right direction.
"The continuing actions to focus the business and to expand our technology offering are beginning to show through," he said. "We are seeing a combination of a slowing of the decline in music and film, and acceleration in the growth of technology.
"Undoubtedly trading conditions and the consumer environment remain challenging, but we remain confident in HMV's future prospects."
Comments
1This is hardly surprising. HMV is more expensive than every other store for pretty much everything they sell. Their game prices are awful. Deus X was down to as little as £15 in most other stores and they were still selling it for £39.99. It is like they are just not trying to compete whatsoever.