Entertainment retailer HMV is “looking at further territories” in the UK and Europe as the group ramps up its international offer, Retail Week can reveal.
In an interview, HMV managing director Phil Halliday told Retail Week that the team is “actively looking at further sites” in Ireland and would also like to continue its expansion in Europe.
HMV already has stores in Dublin, Limerick, and Cork, but Halliday is keen to open more in that market.
The retailer also has two stores in Antwerp and Brussels in Belgium, and two stores in the Netherlands - The Hague and one in Amsterdam, due to open on March 13.
He added that if the Amsterdam store goes well, the team will “look to continue the expansion across Europe”.
“Hopefully, now we’ve got a few stores and a base of operations, the logical next places to look are the neighbouring territories,” he explained.
“We think there are further places that will work for us in Holland. But if you look at Germany and Northern France, we have the operational foundation there to support those areas as you’re building a group of stores, no further away than the distance of stores might be between Manchester and Yeovil in the UK.
“We definitely will be looking at further territories as we get through the project.”
More in the UK
HMV has also had a good start to the year in the UK, as it had a good Christmas and footfall has been up 13% year on year, Halliday revealed.
There is still scope to add to its 100-plus stores in the UK, as he added that “there are a few more locations” HMV would like to be in.
“There are some locations we’d like to look at, but we’ve got to do some things like replatform our website this year,” he said.
“There are some infrastructure projects that we’ll be doing that will take up some time, but there should be plenty more store openings.”
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