The London Daily News

After some better than expected financial results in 2009, the flagship retail division of the ever-expanding music and entertainment firm HMV had a disappointing first quarter in 2010, according to figures published yesterday.

Sales for the sixteen weeks up to 24 Apr in HMV's UK and Ireland stores were down 8.2%. The retailer said the slump was partly due to unusually good first quarters in 2008 and 2009, the reduction in the number of in-store promotions and all that snow that stopped people going shopping.

HMV boss man Simon Fox admitted it has been a "difficult" quarter but said that the company "planned accordingly by tightly managing margins and discretionary costs". He added that other divisions of the expanding HMV Group, in particular HMV Live (ie the MAMA Group), had done well, so that overall the company would deliver profits in line with expectations and "comfortably ahead of last year".

Additional reporting CMU Network