Who owns Fopp?

The same company as HMV. Fopp has not been an independent record shop since 2007.

Its six shops are run by Sunrise Records and Entertainment Limited, the company that trades as HMV, and that company belongs to a Canadian businessman, Doug Putman. The Fopp name itself is registered to a company owned by Hilco Capital, which owned HMV before him.

There is no Fopp company. The two that once carried the name have both been dissolved.

What does the register show?

Nothing called Fopp is trading. HMV's privacy notice says it in one sentence: The HMV Shop, HMV and Fopp in the United Kingdom are trading names of Sunrise Records and Entertainment Limited, company number 11805729. Who stands behind that company is set out in who owns HMV: one holding company, then a company in Ontario, then Mr Putman.

Fopp's own website agrees. Its list of questions includes "Are Fopp part of hmv?", and the answer given is yes, they are part of the same group.

Two dissolved companies show how it got there.

Fopp Limited, company SC200470, ran the original chain and was registered in Scotland. Receivers were appointed on 29 June 2007 and it was dissolved in May 2011.

Fopp Entertainments Limited, company 03040481, was HMV's Fopp, with HMV's chief executive of the time, Simon Fox, among its directors. It was not a new company: it had been on the register since 1995 as Dillons Limited, and was renamed on 7 August 2007, a week after HMV said it would buy the brand. It went into administration with the rest of HMV on 15 January 2013, was renamed Record Shop 4 Limited that April, and was dissolved in October 2014.

Since 2013 Fopp has had no company of its own. It was part of Hilco's HMV until that collapsed, and since February 2019 it has been a name on the front of six of Mr Putman's shops.

Who owns the Fopp name?

The trade mark register lists Fopp, in a registration filed in February 2006, under Mermaid (Brands) Limited, with the HMV marks. Mermaid (Brands) is the former HMV (Brands) Limited, and its one share is held by Hilco Capital Limited.

So the company that runs the Fopp shops is not the company the register names as owner of the word above the door. The filings do not show the terms on which one uses the other's mark.

How did Fopp end up inside HMV?

Fopp began as a market stall in Glasgow. When it closed in 2007 its farewell statement thanked customers for 25 years of support, which puts the start in the early 1980s.

Not long before the end it had bought 67 shops from the administrators of a failed rival, Music Zone. The BBC reported that the deal had trebled the number of Fopp branches, and that it was thought to have put pressure on the firm's cash.

On 29 June 2007 Fopp shut all 105 of its shops and called in Ernst & Young. About 800 people worked for it.

A month later, on 31 July, HMV said it would buy the brand and six of the shops: Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester, Nottingham, Cambridge and Covent Garden in London. It expected to keep up to 70 of the jobs. HMV said at the time that the six would be run apart from its own chain, to keep what was distinctive about them.

By 2013 there were nine. All nine went to Hilco with HMV that April.

In February 2019, when Sunrise Records bought HMV from its second administration, four Fopp shops were on the list of 27 closures: Bristol, Byres Road in Glasgow, Manchester and Oxford. The Manchester shop, on Brown Street, reopened at the end of May 2019 after a new lease was agreed. The Byres Road shop traded on after all, until HMV said in January 2020 that it would close at the end of that month.

Where are the Fopp shops?

Fopp's own store list had six on 2 October 2026:

• Cambridge, Sidney Street
• Edinburgh, Shandwick Place
• Glasgow, Union Street
• London, Earlham Street in Covent Garden
• Manchester, Brown Street
• Nottingham, Bridlesmith Gate

They are the same six cities HMV chose in 2007.

How can you tell a Fopp is an HMV?

From the shop floor you mostly cannot, which is the point of keeping the name. The paperwork gives it away.

A Fopp gift card can be spent in an HMV shop and an HMV card in a Fopp, according to Fopp's own questions page. The privacy notice on fopp.com is HMV's. The managing director is described in the trade press as managing director of HMV and Fopp. And fopp.com does not sell anything: it carries reviews, offers and the list of shops.

Is Fopp independent?

No. It looks like an independent record shop, and it is run to look like one, but it is six branches of a company with more than a hundred shops, owned from Canada.

The useful label is small chain owned by a national chain. By our verified independent badge, which marks a locally and privately owned business, a Fopp does not qualify, and neither does an HMV.

If you are in one of the six cities and want a record shop that belongs to the person behind the counter, that is a different search. In Lincoln, which has an HMV and no Fopp, our guide to independent record shops in Lincoln lists three.

Questions people ask

Is Fopp owned by HMV?

Fopp and HMV are two trading names of one company, Sunrise Records and Entertainment Limited. HMV bought the Fopp brand in 2007, and the two have changed hands together ever since.

Is Fopp Scottish?

It started in Glasgow and two of its six shops are in Scotland. It has belonged to HMV since 2007, and HMV has been owned from Canada since 2019.

Does Fopp have an online shop?

Not of its own. Its website carries reviews, offers and a list of shops. Its gift cards can only be bought and spent in the shops.

Can I use an HMV gift card in Fopp?

Yes, according to Fopp's own questions page: Fopp cards work in HMV shops and HMV cards in Fopp shops.

How many Fopp shops are there?

Six, on Fopp's own list on 2 October 2026. There were 105 when the original company closed in June 2007.

Last checked 2 October 2026. This article uses the Companies House records and insolvency records for Fopp Limited (company SC200470), Record Shop 4 Limited, formerly Fopp Entertainments Limited (03040481), Sunrise Records and Entertainment Limited (11805729) and Mermaid (Brands) Limited (09619888); the Intellectual Property Office's trade mark register, read on 2 October 2026; Fopp's own store list and questions page and HMV's privacy notice, read the same day; and reporting by the BBC (29 June 2007, 5 April 2013 and 5 February 2019), the Guardian (31 July 2007), the Manchester Evening News (28 May 2019), Glasgow Live (5 January 2020) and Retail Bulletin (9 February 2026). What is not claimed: who founded Fopp or in which year, beyond what its own closing statement implies; what HMV paid for the brand in 2007; whether the Byres Road shop closed on the date announced; the terms on which the Fopp name is used today; and how the six shops trade, which the company's accounts do not report separately. The record shops guide was checked on 17 September 2026. If you spot something that needs correcting, email Highstreett and we will review it.