HMV: Date flagship Oxford Street store reopening confirmed after ‘dramatic turnaround’
HMV, the British music and video store giant that has gone kaput twice, will reopen doors to its flagship store on Oxford Street next week, it has confirmed.
After four years of closure, the original HMV store is back in a “dramatic turnaround” the company has said.
The new store, which will create over 70 new jobs, will sell music, film, merch and tech products as well as using the space to showcase artists.
Top pop stars including The Weeknd, Kylie Minogue and The Spice Girls have previously given performances HMV’s very first shop, originally opened on London’s major shopping street in 1921.
HMV owner Doug Putman said: “Our new hmv shop concept and fan-focused offer is really working for us, with hmv once again becoming a mainstay on the UK high street.
“The return to Oxford Street and re-opening of our flagship is a culmination of the team’s hard work over the past four years and as a business we see it as the launchpad for an exciting new era for hmv.
“We want our new Oxford Street shop to become a home for like-minded pop-culture fans and music lovers to come together under one roof, as it memorably has been in the past for so many people,” Putman added.
Putman, who also owns Canadian music retailer Sunrise Records, saved the HMV business after it collapsed into administration in December 2018.
The company had filed for bankruptcy just five years earlier after sales and profits crashed.
HMV stands for His Master’s Voice, after the title of a painting by Francis Barraud of a dog called Nipper listening to a cylinder phonograph, which is reflected in the store’s logo.