HMV is a British entertainment retail company operating in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The first HMV store was opened by the Gramophone Company in Oxford Street in 1921 by the famous British conductor and composer, Sir Edward Elgar. After the opening of the first store in 1921, the company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and the FTSE Fledgling Index. The company was known as HMV Retail Ltd.
In the 1930s HMV began to manufacture radios, televisions, and radiograms under the HMV and Marconiphone brand names at their factory in Hayes, Middlesex. During the 1960s the retail side of the company began to expand, and in 1998 the company was divested from EMI, the successor of the Gramophone Company, and became known as the HMV Group. From 1966, the company began to expand its retail outlets in London and in the 1970s the company doubled in size. By 1976 the company became the leading specialist music retailers in the United Kingdom. In 1986, HMV opened its flagship store on Oxford Street, and at that time it was the largest record store in the world.
HMV has 233 stores across the UK, with another nine stores trading under the Fopp brand. HMV stores across the UK and in other countries offer a range of products like; books, audio, Blu-ray discs, CDs, DVDs, computer software and hardware, video games, posters including an increasing range of clothing and fashion items.
