HMV Canada ends the year on a high

Newsletter
HMV Canada ends the year on a high
Newsletter Q4 2012
Hilco completes
sale of Allied brands
franchises including The Beatles, Star Wars and Dr
Who also proved extremely popular.
Entertainment retailer HMV Canada ended the year with
a dazzling performance as sales over the festive period
topped CAD $65 million – an increase of 1.4% on
same store sales in 2011.
Full year sales exceeded $270 million, demonstrating
the continued importance of physical music and
entertainment products in Canada and the success of
HMV Canada’s new product categories. As core CD
and DVD sales remained broadly in line with 2012
forecasts, new and emerging categories such as gifts
and collectables achieved growth of 49%. British
boy band One Direction dominated the category with
over 71,000 units of merchandise sold, while classic
HFS wins Allianz
Insurance tender
Headphones were a key holiday gifting item with
more than 50,000 units sold, delivering $1.6
million in incremental sales. The holiday season
was also successful for the company’s relaunched
Purehmv loyalty rewards programme, with 38% more
memberships sold than in the same period in 2011,
and the company released a public beta version of its
new cloud music service, The Vault, in December.
Nick Williams, HMV Canada’s President and CEO,
commented: “The Canadian consumer still wants
CDs and DVDs and expects us to deliver them while
adding value to their music experience. We also know
that our consumers are counting on us to enhance
their music experience in the online space, which
is why we launched The Vault this holiday season.
This combined retail and online offering is what will
drive our business forward in 2013 and enable us to
maintain our position as Canada’s most trusted music
and entertainment retailer.”
The considerable brand equity
of Allied Carpets will enable
Floors2Go to expand its business
beyond its core hard flooring
ranges without diluting its
reputation as “the wood flooring
experts”.
Kohl’s snaps up
Denby Cook & Dine
Hilco manages Staples closures
strategic plan
to remodel its
business to
better serve
the evolving
needs of its
customers.
Home Flooring Solutions has won
the tender to provide flooring
claims validation and fulfilment
services to Allianz, one of the UK’s
largest general insurers.
HFS is set for a busy start to the
new year as one of the wettest
periods since records began
resulted in widespread flooding in
much of the UK in late 2012.
Hilco completed the sale of Allied
Brands, comprising the Allied
Carpets and Carpetland brands and
all associated intellectual property,
to Floors2Go in December.
Multinational office supplies retailer
Staples appointed Hilco UK to
operate store closures in 23 of its
locations in December.
The closures form part of Staples’
Hilco has
assumed all
responsibility for operating the
23 stores during the closure
period, providing a turnkey service
including the smooth handover of
the buildings to landlords late in
January 2013.
www.hilcouk.com • Tel 020 7317 2050
Denby has secured a lucrative
deal to distribute its new Cook &
Dine range in US department store
group Kohl’s. With over 1,000
stores, Kohl’s is among the USA’s
largest retailers.
Cook & Dine is Denby’s entry level,
British-made stoneware range
which was launched in the UK in
Autumn 2012.
Newsletter
Looking back on another busy year: Hilco UK 2012 timeline
2012 proved to be one of the Hilco UK group’s
busiest yet as the company expanded into new
territories, made its largest acquisition to date –
in the form of the $100 million Kraus transaction
– sold several businesses, opened numerous
retail outlets and provided services to a variety
of blue chip professional services organisations,
retailers and brand owners. Our 2012 timeline
charts the most notable events of the year.
Cronite Scomark
ENGINEERING LIMITED
Hilco acquires 1927 Spain
Wholesale pops up in Essex
accessories distributor 1927 in
December. The business includes
an outlet store in the prestigious
Las Rozas luxury brand outlet
village, a sister development to the
UK’s Bicester Village.
Hilco Iberia acquired the Spanish
business of fashion footwear and
2 Hilco Newsletter Q4 2012
Hilco also assisted 1927 in
refinancing the pan-European
business in December. With new
funding in place, the company is
ideally placed to expand both its
wholesale and retail channels into
new territories in 2013.
Vivienne Westwood and Alexander
McQueen.
Hilco Wholesale opened its first
Designer Clearance Outlet pop up
store in October. Located in the
Freeport Braintree outlet centre in
Essex, the 1,000 sq ft off-price
boutique sells men’s, women’s
and children’s fashion from
leading designer brands such as
Hilco’s HRPS property services
team managed the location
sourcing, lease negotiation and fitout process in a turnkey operation
that took just four weeks from start
to finish.
The store has proved to be a hit
with the fashionistas of Essex,
with buoyant sales throughout the
festive period.
www.hilcouk.com
Newsletter
New Oceans site
makes waves
Hilco helps Rapid expansion New starter
1971, moving to its
present location in the
160,000 sq ft former
John Lewis building in the
city centre in 2009.
Oceans, the premium outdoor
furniture brand, launched a
stylish new website in November.
Significantly, the new site is fully
transactional, marking a departure
from Oceans’ previous strategy.
Browse the new site at:
www.oceansrattanfurniture.com
Hilco Wholesale and George &
Freddie have opened concessions
in Rapid, the Liverpool hardware
and homewares department store.
Boasting “everything for [your]
home and garden”, the familyowned store has been part of
Liverpool’s retail landscape since
Kraus conference
ushers in new era
Hilco Wholesale’s sourcing
expertise has enabled
Rapid to quickly add
new product categories including
bedding and furniture to its
mix without tying up capital or
resources. The appeal of the store
has been broadened further by
the George & Freddie concession
which brings leading toy and
technology brands to Rapid for the
first time.
Hugh Whitcomb joined Hilco
UK in November in the position
of Investment Director –
Manufacturing.
Having previously worked with
Hilco in a consultancy capacity on
the Kraus and Park investments,
Hugh is now responsible for all of
the company’s investments in the
manufacturing sector.
A chartered engineer with over
thirty years experience in industry,
Hugh has led numerous continuous
improvement projects and
turnarounds and brings a wealth of
expertise to the company.
Cross Border Orchestra wows London
Kraus Group held its first international sales
conference in December at the DoubleTree
Fallsview resort in Niagra Falls, Ontario. The
three day event brought together the company’s
Canada, USA and Australia sales teams for the
first time, in contrast to holding separate sales
conferences, and marked the start of an exciting
new period for Kraus following a successful
restructuring during 2012.
In addition to guest speakers and an awards
ceremony to recognise the company’s most
successful salespeople of 2012, Kraus launched
several new products.
A luxury vinyl tile range, branded Enstyle in
Canada and Verity in the USA, represents a
completely new category for Kraus, while other
new launches for 2013 expand the company’s
carpet, wood and laminate ranges.
www.hilcouk.com
The Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland, the
internationally acclaimed youth orchestra
sponsored by Hilco UK, made its London
debut at the Royal Albert Hall in November.
Accompanied by a choir of a thousand voices
made up of children from schools across
London, the orchestra performed an exhilarating
concert that ranged from traditional Irish music
to classical, pop and a specially commissioned
piece entitled Crossing Borders.
The award winning orchestra was formed in
1995 to bring together young people from
different backgrounds and communities and has
sold out many of the world’s leading venues. For
more information, visit www.thecboi.org.
Hilco Newsletter Q4 2012 3
Newsletter
MIG helps Arco identify and target new customers
The Marketing Innovation Group’s work for Arco,
the UK’s leading supplier of safety clothing and
equipment, has proved successful in helping the
company expand into the ‘micro construction’
marketplace. Where Arco had previously focused
its marketing efforts on large businesses, the
transactional data analysis conducted by MIG
revealed an under-exploited opportunity for Arco
to target the ‘micro construction’ industry of
independent builders and tradespeople.
MIG identified and sourced new prospect data,
alongside the redesignation of Arco’s existing
small business customers to add them to Arco’s
Trade Direct programme, more than doubling
the number of members. MIG subsequently
devised a marketing strategy to develop new
members into regular and loyal customers.
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE POND
Hilco Brands and Musterbrand New York signed
an exclusive licensing agreement with legendary
gaming brand Atari in October. The companies
will help Atari pursue licensing partnerships in new
categories including fashion, home and lifestyle
goods.
Hilco Trading was appointed as the liquidating
agent for bankrupt baked goods producer Hostess
Brands, the company behind famous snacks
such as Twinkies, Sno Balls and Ding-Dongs.
The assignment will involve Hilco Real Estate,
Hilco Industrial, Hilco Streambank and Hilco Asset
Protection.
Hilco Real Estate was hired to sell a 660 acre
site in Jefferson County, Indiana, which includes the
unfinished Marble Hill nuclear power plant on which
construction ceased in 1984. Other Hilco Real
Estate assignments in the fourth quarter included the
redevelopment of the former GM plant in Ohio and the
sale of credit card manufacturer Qualteq’s commercial
real estate portfolio.
Hilco Merchant Resources was selected
by Massachusetts supermarket chain Johnnie’s
Foodmaster to conduct store closing sales in all ten of
the company’s stores in November.
Hilco Streambank and Monroe Credit Advisors
were retained by advanced materials company NanoTex to market and sell the business. The company’s
nanotechnology-based fabric treatments are used to
apply water repellant, stain resistant, odour control,
antistatic and wrinkle resistant properties to clothing,
home textiles and commercial interiors.
The Hilco Helps charitable programme supported
numerous charities across the USA, including the
National Kidney Foundation, the American Cancer
Society, the Children’s Hospital of Chicago, St
Jude’s Childrens Hospital and the Brain Research
Foundation.
Hilco Industrial announced a partnership with
Proxibid in October to bring the auction of 50
fleet-maintained Freightliner C120 trucks owned
by Schneider National to bidders across the world
via Proxibid’s online platform.
SD Retail Consulting announced a strategic
alliance with Johnson Stephens Consulting to
expand its portfolio of services to the global retail
industry. Johnson Stephens bring logistics network
and distribution centre design and construction
expertise to SD’s highly regarded retail operations
consultancy.
Twice2much to uncover lost profits for Kuoni Plain sailing for Clipper
founded by Alfred Kuoni in Switzerland in 1906
and has operated in the UK since 1965. The
company has expanded in recent years through
a series of acquisitions, including Voyages Jules
Verne and Journeys of Distinction.
Twice2much has been appointed to conduct
accounts payable reviews for two new clients
to identify duplicate payments and unclaimed
rebates. Luxury holiday company, Kuoni, was
Shropshire Council is the latest public sector
organisation to sign up to Twice2much’s
services, following successful reviews for
Hereford Council, Northampton Hospital,
Canterbury Council and many others.
Clipper Marine ended the year with another
quarter of seven figure sales as the boat
dealership capitalised on a gradual upturn in the
market.
Not content to rest on their laurels, the Clipper
team are hard at work preparing to make a
splash at January’s London Boat Show where
they’re set to launch two new Bavaria motor
yachts and the Vision 46 sailing boat together
with a new Bavaria Yacht Charter service.
Published by Hilco UK Limited, 80 New Bond Street, London W1S 1SB · Tel (0)207 317 2050 · Fax (0)207 317 2051 · © 2013 Hilco UK Limited · All rights reserved
4 Hilco Newsletter Q4 2012
www.hilcouk.com