HMV Makes A Profit - Pollstar News

Of all the stories written about HMV’s recent success, the most important was the Daily Telegraph piece saying the formerly bankrupt high street music retailer is now making a profit.

The daily broadsheet says it’s seen the latest accounts, which show the famous chain of shops racked up nearly £17 million ($27.6 million) profit in the 11 months after it was forced into administration. The Telegraph has gone from reporting that HMV “may not be done for after all” in July, to saying the company is about to overtake Tesco for second place in the market in August, to now saying HMV is poised to reclaim the title of Britain’s biggest entertainment retailer from Amazon.

Having gone under with debts of more than £170 million ($275.9 million) in January 2013, the set of accounts to be files at Companies House show that its next full year of trading produced an operating profit of £16.7 million ($27 million) from sales of £311.2 million ($505 million).

In April 2013, restructuring specialist Hilco paid a reported £50 million ($81.2 million) for 140 HMV stores.