HMV On The Comeback Trail

The consumer analyst reports that HMV, which was brought out of administration by Hilco in April 2013, grew its CD, DVD and video game sales market share in the UK from 13.6 percent to 14.7 percent in the quarter ending July 6.

At its lowest point, just before going into administration, HMV had 10.7 percent of the market.

“HMV appears to be making a comeback on the high street following a strong performance over the past quarter,” Fiona Keenan of Kantar Worldpanel told The Daily Telegraph.

A month ago Hilco boss Paul McGowan, who’s also chairman of HMV, said the retailer is now very profitable and growing like-for-like sales by 9.2 percent.

HMV’s comeback has largely been at the expense of Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury and Morrisons, the UK’a big four supermarkets, which helped put it in danger in the first place. Amazon remains the largest entertainment retailer in the UK, with its market share growing from 20.2 percent to 21.8 percent during the 12-week period.

Kantar says Britain’s “big four” supermarkets saw 1 million fewer shoppers buy entertainment products from them during the quarter.

Tesco’s market share fell from 15.8 percent to 14.6 percent in the period, putting it in third place behind Amazon and HMV. Fourth-place Asda saw its market share shriank from 13.3 percent to 12.3 percent.