Sunrise CEO confident he can rescue U.K.-based HMV Retail
TORONTO Doug Putman hadn’t slept, sitting in a London office with lawyers and sales data and store leases, negotiating the purchase of HMV Retail Ltd., the storied but ailing chain of U.K. music stores.
The 34-year-old owner of Sunrise Records — a once-modest Hamilton, Ont., outfit that Putman grew into a small empire of more than 80 stores across Canada — had been in London less than a week. By around 5:30 a.m. London time Tuesday, after working through the night, he signed a deal to buy HMV and 100 of its stores, wresting the near century-old brand from insolvency and sparing 1,487 employees.
“Oh, we’ll be profitable this year,” Putman said casually, over the phone from the lobby — now his lobby — at HMV headquarters on Tuesday afternoon. Hours earlier, he had stood in front of 120 corporate employees at the headquarters and promised them that their business, which still trades primarily in CDs and DVDs, would survive “for a very long time.”
Putman wouldn’t say what he paid for HMV, except that the purchase price and the money he expects to inject into the company should total more than $10 million. “Look, it’s a great retailer doing an awful lot of business. In Canadian dollars, we’re talking over $400 million a year in sales.”
Those who have followed HMV’s fortunes in recent years might be skeptical of Putman’s plan to make the company profitable in just months. In late December, following a dismal holiday shopping season, HMV filed for administration — a procedure in the U.K. insolvency process designed to help rescue companies. It signalled the ongoing struggles of a music and video retailer in an era of online streaming.
The plan, Putman said, is to shift HMV’s offerings to vinyl records, which continue to surge in popularity despite a decline in physical album sales.