Sunrise Records Moving In To 70 HMV Locations

Music Chain Plans To Seize An Opportunity

It looks like as far as Sunrise Records is concerned, where one door closes another one opens. The independent Canadian music and movie retailer will be moving into 70 vacant HMV locations.

Earlier this year, HMV announced its closure of 102 Canadian locations. According to reports, the chain had been losing a whopping $100 000 per day.

Apparently Sunrise Records, who were forced to close two locations in downtown Toronto in 2014, sees this as an opportunity to tap into the vinyl market, which has seen a steady growth in popularity over the last few years.

Sunrise President Doug Putman will be interviewed on the Strombo show tonight (any minute now) CBC Radio 2 94.1 talking about the new locations rolling out.

Posted by Sunrise Records on Sunday, February 26, 2017

Sunrise’s new locations will focus on vinyl, but will also sell merchandise such as CDs, apparel, boardgames, and other pop culture paraphernalia.

A key component to Sunrise’s plan is the company will be granting store managers the freedom to purchase items based on their market.

“With HMV leaving, it leaves a big hole in the marketplace,” Sunrise Records president Doug Putman told CBC “so we just thought it was a good opportunity and the timing was right. So we are going to jump on it and do what we can.”

The new Sunrise Records stores will begin to open in April, and a press release indicates that Sunrise Records has not forgotten about the number of HMV employees that were left without work.

“We want to let any former HMV employees know that we are opening, and we want to hear from them,” states the release.

Feature photo courtesy of Sunrise Records.