HMV ownership
On 31 July 2007, it was announced that HMV would take control of the Fopp brand and its shops in Cambridge, Edinburgh Rose Street (but not Cockburn Street), Glasgow, London Covent Garden, Manchester and Nottingham.[6] On 12 February 2008, Bristol Evening Post reported that a further shop would open in Bristol (in a former HMV-owned Waterstone's store), a city in which three Fopp shops had traded prior to summer 2007.
On 24 August 2007, the Glasgow Union Street and Edinburgh stores reopened. The Cambridge shop reopened on 25 August 2007, and the Manchester shop was relaunched on the 27th. After a statement from HMV stating that it was unable to open the Covent Garden London branch, it finally gained the landlord's consent to take over the lease and the shop reopened on 5 October 2007. Only around 10% of the original 700 employees kept their jobs.
It was also announced that the Leamington Spa shop would be reopening as Head, a separate shop from Fopp, but retaining Fopp's stock and assets.[7] The Head shop opened on 1 November 2007 and employed some of its predecessor's former employees. The shop intends to host regular performances from local bands, and hopes to allow musicians, artists and authors from Leamington and its surrounding areas to sell their work there. This was initially a single shop, but has more recently expanded into a chain of four sites.
In 2009, the HMV shop in Exeter, Devon, was rebranded as a new Fopp shop while HMV moved to a new building in the redeveloped Princesshay Shopping Centre.[8] Also in August 2010, HMV opened a new Fopp store on the ground floor of the Waterstone's store in Gower Street, London. On 30 January 2011, HMV closed the Fopp shop in Exeter due to poor sales in the recent reform of HMV. It was the first Fopp shop to close under the HMV banner. In January 2014, Fopp announced it would be closing the London Gower Street branch within Waterstone's on 18 January 2014, with the remaining business transferring to the Covent Garden branch.[9]
At their peak under HMV ownership, nine shops were trading as Fopp.[10]
On 15 January 2013 Fopp, along with its parent company HMV went into administration.[11] HMV was bought out of administration by Hilco UK on 5 April 2013 saving Fopp's nine remaining shops.[12]
On 28 December 2018, HMV confirmed it had again been placed into administration, which Hilco UK cited the "tsunami" of retail competition as the reason for the move. [13] On 5 February 2019, Canadian record shop chain Sunrise Records announced its acquisition of HMV Retail Ltd. from Hilco UK for an undisclosed amount, but at the cost of closing 26 locations, including four Fopp shops, leaving only six shops trading under the name. In January 2020 the Byres Road shop in Glasgow closed leaving only five stores.[14]
