Burnley HMV store closes

The troubled music giant announced last January that a number of stores would be closed during an ongoing process and the Charter Walk store is the latest to fall victim.

Talks are ongoing with its eight full and part-time staff with regards to deploying them to other stores and a HMV spokesman said: “We’re really sorry to be closing our store in the Charter Walk Shopping Centre, which is not a decision we’ve taken lightly and certainly doesn’t in any way reflect on the fantastic work colleagues we have there or indeed on our regular customers – who we’d like to thank most sincerely for their valued support.”

The store opened in October 2009 and has proven a popular addition to the make-up of Burnley’s shopping centre.

Unfortunately though HMV has continued to struggle nationally, suffering a sharp fall in sales over Christmas.

The spokesman continued: “We announced last January we would be reviewing our portfolio of stores around the country with a view to closing up to 40 of our 285-strong chain where we were either duplicating our offer locally or in some particular cases a number of stores were no longer proving as commercially viable as they once used to be given high operational costs and rents in relation to prevailing market conditions, and while we’ve only recently decided to close our store in Burnley, its closure is, sadly, ultimately part of this process.

“I’m pleased to say, however, we have no plans to close other stores in the region, and we look forward to perhaps seeing some of our regular customers in nearby HMV stores or even online at hmv.com.”