Games push HMV profits up by 10% - do you use HMV for games?

Booming demand for computer games has helped HMV to sidestep the gloom hanging over other high street retailers.
HMV,the CDs, DVDs and games stores group that also includes the Waterstonesbooks chain, yesterday reported double-digit sales growth over thelatest quarter and predicted full-year profits would be at the top endof market expectations.
Chief executive Simon Fox, said HMV UKand Ireland had "clearly benefited from a strong games market", whichit continued to outpace. Over the last 16 weeks the games market was up25% while HMV increased sales more than 40%, the company said.
HMV'stotal like-for-like sales grew by 10.1% in the 16 weeks to April 26,and by 7.3% for the full year. Fox said that after stripping computergames out of the numbers, its like-for-like sales growth was still morethan 8% in the 16 weeks.
Although the overall music market hascontinued to decline and DVD sales are only slightly higher, HMVenjoyed strong gains thanks to advertising campaigns and in-store andonline promotions, particularly for present-giving days such asValentine's Day and Mother's Day.
Looking ahead, HMV wasconfident that underlying pre-tax profits will be "towards the upperend of market expectations" of £46-58m.
Fox flagged up a strongmusic line-up going into the autumn, including Madonna's recentlyreleased Hard Candy and new albums from Coldplay, the Zutons, PaulWeller, Oasis and Usher. In DVDs he singled out Sweeney Todd, BeeMovie, No Country for Old Men, Juno and There Will Be Blood.

For the the last sixteen weeks of the financial year sales were up 11.9 per cent, with like-for-like growth of 10.1 per cent.
The Group said it expects pre-tax profits for the full financial year to be at the upper end of GBP 146 – GBP 158 million.

The company is in the first year of its three-year strategy to revitalise the business, which involves a bigger commitment to online sales and to the videogames market.
“Aswe complete the first full year of our three-year turnaround plan, weare ahead of where we expected to be,” commented chief executive SimonFox.
“We have made good progress driving forward our strategicinitiatives to increase efficiency, revitalise our core business andestablish new channels to market.