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Business News Retail Top Stories
Zavvi stores start to close
By CMU Editorial | Published on Friday 9 January 2009
So, the first 22 Zavvi stores were closed yesterday as the former Virgin Megastore’s administrators try to find a way to rescue the rest of the stumbling music seller which, as previously reported, went into administration following the collapse of its principle supplier, Woolies owned eUK.
178 jobs will go as Zavvi stores close in Ashford, Ayr, Bideford, Braintree (x2), Bridgend, Castleford, Chatham, Edinburgh, Hempstead Valley, High Wycombe, Huddersfield, Liverpool, Livingston, Manchester, Mansfield, Newcastle, Sterling Mills, Street, Swindon, Torquay and York (in the bigger cities it’s generally the outer-city shopping centre stores that are going).
Confirming the closure, Tom Jack of administrators Ernst & Young told reporters: “Despite record consumer demand since Christmas, it is no longer possible to support continued trading across all of the Zavvi stores. Unfortunately, the current difficulties faced on the UK high street seem to be discouraging retailers from investing in a significant number of new stores”.
He added that sixty different parties had expressed an interest in buying all or part of the Zavvi business, though even if a buyer could be found for the whole company it is unlikely that buyer would want to keep all 114 stores open, which is presumably one of the reasons why 22 have been closed now, so that a new buyer would not have to offload the poorer performers after acquisition.
Despite Jack’s comments, some in the music industry are pessimistic that a buyer will be found for all but a handful of the former Megastores.
