HMV closures add to space vacated in retail crisis

This week, HMV’s new owner, Canadian firm Sunrise Records, announced that while 100 of the music retailer’s shops would be saved, it would be shuttering 27 UK stores. The closures will see just over 170,000 sq ft handed back to landlords, which is significantly less than the 589,778 sq ft that became vacant when HMV collapsed for the first time in 2013. Sunrise Records’ closure of 23 HMV and four Fopp stores will bring the total amount of space that has been vacated in the first six weeks of 2019 to 1.1m sq ft. The total amount of space lost due to administrations and CVAs since the start of the retail crisis in 2018 now stands at 19.2m sq ft, according to Radius Data Exchange analysis. The figures show that since the start of 2018, some 30% of the space lost has been in London and the South East, due largely to its higher density of retail. Yorkshire & Humberside and the North West are the second and third worst affected regions, accounting for 14% and 12% of closures respectively.   HMV/Fopp store closures Ayr Bath Bluewater, Kent Bristol, Cribbs Causeway Chichester Exeter, Princesshay Bristol (Fopp) Glasgow Byres (Fopp) Manchester (Fopp) Oxford (Fopp) Glasgow, Braehead Guernsey Hereford Trafford, Manchester Merry Hill, Dudley Oxford Street, WC1 Queensgate, Peterborough Plymouth, Drake Circus Reading Meadowhall, Sheffield Southport Thurrock Tunbridge Wells Uxbridge Watford Westfield London Wimbledon   To send feedback, e-mail james.child@egi.co.uk or tweet @JamesChildEG or @estatesgazette