Local retailer becomes latest victim of the download culture

Music Zone, which went into administration earlier this month, have announced that they are closing 31 stores and making hundreds of employees redundant including all staff at the Chiswick store.

The site was previously the location of MVC which also went into liquidation. It is widely believed that stores selling CDs and DVDs are suffering due to the increased amount of downloading of music and video. Chiswick High Road also recently saw the closure of Games Station which was suffering from competition from online sales.

The music and film retailer will retain 72 stores and around 800 members of staff.

According to administrators Deloitte, a number of parties have expressed interest in buying the business. “During the first week of trading, the administrators spent a considerable amount of time assessing the viability of the business and the difficult decision was taken to close a number of stores.

“However, we have commenced a marketing strategy to seek a buyer for the business as a going concern and continue to work hard to achieve a positive result for Music Zone.”

January 17, 2007