It seems the global recession has been good to the UK’s biggest seller of DVDs and Blu-rays, HMV, with them reporting a 18% rise in annual profits, partly thanks to the demise of Woolworths and Zavvi. Like-for-like sales were up 1.9% at HMV, which helped offset a nearly 4% drop in sales at the group’s Waterstones bookstores.
Zavvi and Woolworth’s going under means that on the high street, there’s only WHSmith as major competition in the DVD, Blu-ray and music market. While HMV faces stiff competition from supermarkets and online stores, the majority of home entertainment releases are still bought in physical shops, allowing HMV to consolidate its market position despite the global downturn – indeed HMV bought several of Zavvi’s store in areas where it didn’t have a strong presence.
It’s also resulted in a rise in the average cost of new release DVDs on the high street, as less competition has allowed the remaining retailers to charge more for new discs.