New! Is Harrogate HMV safe from closure?

The buyer, Doug Putman, boss of Sunrise Records, beat Sports Direct founder and majority owner Mike Ashley in the battle for the iconic British music and entertainment retailer.

An official announcement from the new owner on store closures came this afternoon.

The BBC reported that Harrogate was not on the list released by administrators of HMV, KPMG of stores planned for closure.

Branches facing the axe do include the flagship branch in Oxford Street, the location of HMV's first store.

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The Sunrise Records boss is well known for being a music fan himself, especially vinyl.

He has already said that most of the HMV’s 100 stores across the UK will be be retained, saving the jobs of almost 1,500 employees.

But the youngish entrepreneur also said that 27 'under-performing' stores would close with immediate effect, resulting in 455 redundancies.

It is known that HMV stores have been unable to order as much new stock since it went into administration just after Christmas.

But quick action is inevitable, if not for the simple reason that the movie awards season is looming with its swathe of new DVD releases and the schedule of new music album releases is also speeding up.

The Harrogate branch of HMV was trading at lunchtime when the Harrogate Advertiser visited.

Putman’s Sunrise Records previously took over around 70 HMV stores in Canada when the retailer collapsed there in early 2017.Although he changed the name of those stores, in the UK the iconic HMV brand is to live on.

He said: “We are delighted to acquire the most iconic music and entertainment business in the UK and add nearly 1500 employees to our growing team. “By catering to music and entertainment lovers, we are incredibly excited about the opportunity to engage customers with a diverse range of physical format content and replicate our success in Canada.“We know the physical media business is here to stay and we greatly appreciate all the support from the suppliers, landlords, employees and, most importantly, our customers.”