HMV set to open its first Irish store in seven years

HMV closed its last Irish stores in Dublin and Limerick in 2016. Picture: Denis Scannell

HMV is set to make a return to the Irish market in July seven years after it shuttered its last remaining stores.

The company has announced that a new flagship store - the first outside of the UK in four years - will open on 18 Henry Street, Dublin in the middle of July. The last HMV stores in Ireland closed its doors in 2016.

The 6,000sq ft retail space on Henry Street is being let from Irish Life. The store will have three floors for merchandise and offer performance spaces to create the city’s latest live music venue. The store is planning on hosting shows and signings from some of the country’s and world’s biggest stars.

In 2019, HMV was acquired by Sunrise Records which is owned by Canadian billionaire Doug Putman. There are already 120 stores across the UK. Mr Putman said HMV’s return to Ireland “marks the culmination” of the team’s hard work in establishing a “new HMV shopping experience across the UK”.

“We are now in a position to expand that concept into Europe.” Mr Putman said that they want the location at Henry Street to become a “home for a new community of fans” in Ireland.

“We hope that once we’ve got our feet back under the table in Ireland, further HMV shop openings will follow,” he said.

In the lead-up to its exit from the Irish market, HMV had been struggling for many years as it tried to compete with digital music sales. In 2013, the company had closed 16 locations in Ireland making 300 people redundant after a receiver was appointed.

However, eight months after that, the company’s new owners Hilco, re-opened stores in Dublin’s Henry Street, Liffey Valley shopping centre and Dundrum town centre as well as Limerick’s Crescent shopping centre. However, even these stores didn’t last much longer and were closed in September 2016.

In 2018, Hilco was forced to call in the administrators for the company and in 2019 it was sold to Mr Putman.