HMV hopes high-seas film hoists sales

NEW releases including Johnny Depp's Pirates of the Caribbean and the second series of The Office should boost DVD sales this Christmas, according to HMV, Britain's biggest music and DVD retailer.

Despite flat underlying sales over the past five months, chief executive Alan Giles is upbeat about the all-important Christmas period.

As well as the new films, there is a strong pipeline of products in music, with releases from Dido and Robbie Williams.

In books, a Ben Schott food and drink miscellany should boost sales at the group's Waterstone's chain. 'We feel we are well set for the Christmas period. There are a lot of compelling products to buy,' said Giles.

Total group sales grew by 1.8% in the 21 weeks to 20 September. HMV Europe was ahead by 0.6% like-for-like but would have been ahead by about 1.6% had it not been for the impact of the hot weather.

HMV is facing increasing competition in CDs from the supermarket chains but Giles disputed recent claims from Tesco that it had overtaken HMV in sales of chart CDs: 'We all know what our own market shares are, but not what the others' shares are. But we did raise our eyebrows at that claim from Tesco,' he said. Most recent figures for the whole CD market, rather than only chart titles, showed a 19% share for HMV against 6% for Tesco.

At Waterstone's, buoyant sales of the latest Harry Potter volume saw like-for-like turnover rise by just over 5%. The books chain recently opened its first new branch in more than three years and a further four are planned before Christmas.