Related News
HMV hopes for good Christmas
By James Davey |
December 12, 2009, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
BRITISH entertainment retailer HMV Group is hoping strong demand for music this Christmas, fueled by the X Factor TV talent show and singing phenomenon Susan Boyle, will offset weak markets in books and computer games.
"It's a very good Christmas for music, led by the whole X Factor effect and Susan Boyle's quite remarkable sales performance," Chief Executive Simon Fox told reporters yesterday after HMV posted an expected narrowing of first-half losses.
Along with Boyle's chart topping debut album, "I Dreamed a Dream," releases from 2007 X Factor winner Leona Lewis, 2008 runners-up JLS, and Cheryl Cole, a judge on the show, are expected to drive HMV's Christmas sales.
"The games market, having had two years of growth, is currently going backwards ... books are looking quite tough," said Fox, echoing comments on Tuesday.
HMV, which runs 420 stores under its own name as well as 312 Waterstone's bookstores, made a pretax loss of 24.9 million pounds (US$40.6 million) in the 26 weeks to October 24. That compares with analyst forecasts of a loss of 17 million to 26 million pounds and a loss of 27.5 million pounds last year.
Finance Director Neil Bright said he was "comfortable" with analysts' consensus pretax profit forecast of 75 million pounds for the year to end-April.
"It's a very good Christmas for music, led by the whole X Factor effect and Susan Boyle's quite remarkable sales performance," Chief Executive Simon Fox told reporters yesterday after HMV posted an expected narrowing of first-half losses.
Along with Boyle's chart topping debut album, "I Dreamed a Dream," releases from 2007 X Factor winner Leona Lewis, 2008 runners-up JLS, and Cheryl Cole, a judge on the show, are expected to drive HMV's Christmas sales.
"The games market, having had two years of growth, is currently going backwards ... books are looking quite tough," said Fox, echoing comments on Tuesday.
HMV, which runs 420 stores under its own name as well as 312 Waterstone's bookstores, made a pretax loss of 24.9 million pounds (US$40.6 million) in the 26 weeks to October 24. That compares with analyst forecasts of a loss of 17 million to 26 million pounds and a loss of 27.5 million pounds last year.
Finance Director Neil Bright said he was "comfortable" with analysts' consensus pretax profit forecast of 75 million pounds for the year to end-April.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
