British music retailer HMV leaves America

NEW YORK (Bloomberg newsletter) - HMV, the UK music retailer, is to close its last store in the US by the end of this year. The retailer ahead of its year end, has three remaining stores in the US. Two, in Harlem (New York) and South Park Mall in Cleveland, will close by the end of next month and a final 12,000 sq ft store on New York�s Fifth Avenue will close in December.

The closures, which will result in 101 redundancies, end an inglorious adventure for HMV. Its US business, which once had 15 stores, has been loss-making since opening its first store in early 1990s.

In the year to April 2003 the US business lost $3,5 million, while store closures cost HMV an additional $ 6.25 million.
During the past year four more stores have shut.