HMV's flagship store on Grafton St is one of 16 Irish stores to close permanently.

HMV's flagship store on Grafton St is one of 16 Irish stores to close permanently.

ABOUT 300 STAFF are to be made permanently redundant following the decision of HMV’s Irish receiver to close all 16 of the company’s stores on a permanent basis.

David Carson of Deloitte today confirmed that efforts to find buyers for the 16 Irish stores, which have been shut since last month when the company’s British parent went into administration, had been unsuccessful.

In a statement Deloitte said each of the 16 Irish stores had been loss-making, meaning that while it had actively tried to find buyers for the stores, it had been proven impossible to do so.

The marketplace had been “very difficult given competition from web-based retailers and digital downloads”, it said, as well as other factors including high rental prices.

HMV’s Irish staff had been previously placed on temporary lay-off but will now be made redundant.

The company’s most recent Irish accounts, for the year ending April 2011, indicated total staff numbers of 293 but a post-tax loss of €2.25 million that year. The company had assets of €24.7 million and liabilities of €16.2 million at that time.

Last week the company said it would be shutting over a quarter of its 220 outlets in Britain, with 66 stores shutting at various times this year. Many of the chain’s British stores had remained profitable despite the turbulence to the high street music industry.