HMV hits the right note as profits soar

Published on Tuesday 30 June 2009 09:43

MUSIC and books retailer HMV Group has seen profits soar over the past year despite the recession, it announced today.

The retailer reported an 11.5 per cent rise in annual profit, a result which has been helped in part by the demise of the firm's smaller rivals.

The 88-year-old firm, which runs the famous UK high street music, DVD and video games shops, as well as Waterstone's bookstores, this morning posted profit before tax and one-off items of 63 million for the year ended April 25.

Sales from continuing operations rose 4.4 percent to 1.96bn.

HMV has benefited from the collapse of rivals Woolworths and Zavvi which, after years of struggling with competition from the internet and supermarkets, succumbed at the start of the recession.

"We are working hard to maximise both the market share opportunity that has arisen from the withdrawal of competitors, and the investments that have been made over the last two years to improve performance," an HMV spokesman said.

The results were driven by increased sales of games, music and films at the HMV store, with Waterstone's seeing a drop in sales of 3.6 per cent to 548.3m.

Like for like sales were down of 3.8 per cent, although this came a year after the release of the JK Rowling bestseller Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

The release of e-books in stores had seen an "encouraging" increase in downloaded sales.

The group also said the good figures were a result of its turnaround plan which boosted profits in a "difficult" retail climate.

The company said it had responded to the competitive threat by widening its focus, entering the live music and ticketing markets, trialling digital cinemas in partnership with Curzon and selling mobile phones in a deal with France Telecom's Orange.

Simon Fox, Chief Executive, said: "At the end of the second year of our three-year transformation plan the Group has delivered further profit growth, despite the challenging retail environment.

"We are continuing to adapt to meet the changes in our markets and, whilst there is still much to do, our plans for the third year of our programme are on track.

"We are also looking at further growth opportunities available to us and are very pleased with the recently announced joint venture in live music and partnerships for film and mobile. I am confident that we have the right strategy in place to continue to build a strong and vibrant business for the future."