| Former type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail supply and distribution |
| Founded | 1966 (as Record Merchandisers Limited)[1] |
| Founder(s) | EMI Records |
| Defunct | 2009 |
| Headquarters | Middlesex, UK |
| Area served | UK |
| Key people | Steve Lewis, Managing Director, Mike Thomas, IT and Business Development Director, Graham Barnetson, Sales & Marketing Director, Paul Ludlam, Trading Director, Tim Owrid, Supply Chain Director[2] |
| Products | Books Consoles DVDs Games Music |
| Revenue | £1.22bn (2008)[3] |
| Profit | £12.3m (2008)[3] |
| Employees | 375[4] |
| Parent | Woolworths Group |
| Website | www.entuk.co.uk |
Entertainment UK Limited (EUK) was a retail supply and distribution company and a wholly owned subsidiary of Woolworths Group plc. The company, along with Woolworths plc, entered administration with Deloitte & Touche on 28 November 2008.[5] EUK claimed to have had a turnover in excess of £1.4 billion per annum, and over 160,000 lines of products.[6]
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Entertainment UK was founded, originally as Record Merchandisers Limited in 1966 by EMI Records, to distribute music to non-specialist retailers, and subsequently became a joint venture between a number of record companies. Woolworths became Entertainment UK's largest customer and in 1986 Record Merchandisers Limited was acquired by the Kingfisher Group. In 1988, Record Merchandisers Limited changed its name to Entertainment UK (EUK).
EUK became the property of Woolworths Group plc after the demerger from parent company, the Kingfisher Group in 2001. In 2006, the Woolworths Group acquired Total Home Entertainment Distribution Limited (THE) to form part of Entertainment UK (EUK) division.[1] In November 2007 EUK acquired Bertram Books, a major book wholesaler and distributor.[7]
EUK was the most profitable arm of the Woolworths Group and it was this portion of the business that the management hoped to retain when it attempted to divest itself of its retail arm and its liabilities. However, with the failure of the restructuring talks EUK went into administration with its parent company on the 28 November and immediately stopped deliveries.[8] On 12 December 2008, 700 staff were made redundant.[5][9] EUK is continuing to operate with a reduced workforce of 375. On 14 January 2009, Deloitte announced a further reduction of 134 employees across all 4 of EUK's remaining sites, and is continuing in its efforts to sell any remaining stock within the warehouses in order to service the debt.
On 13 March 2009, Gardners Books based in Eastbourne, East Sussex visited Entertainment UK's Greenford Auriol Drive site for talks about a possible purchase of the lease to the automated warehouse, and at one point it was believed that a deal totalling £1,500,000 was struck to purchase the lease, but this subsequently was proved unfounded as at the same time Tesco had on 22 January applied for planning permission to develop the site.
Following a number of "active discussions" with prospective suitors of Bertram Books,[10] the administrators announced the sale of the company to Smiths News.[11]
The Entertainment UK business remains in administration and unsold.
In 2005 and 2006, Entertainment UK was given 'The European Supply Chain Excellence' and 'The Global Retail Technology Forum' awards respectively in addition to the 'Best Retail Buying Team' at 2006 MCV Industry Excellence Awards.[6]
Entertainment UK supplied many major retailers and signed new partnerships with Zavvi (formerly Virgin Megastores) and Asda in 2007.[12] Other notable customers included Morrisons, Sainsburys, WH Smith, as well as the Borders UK entertainment back catalogue, and formerly Tesco. It also ran two Amazon Marketplace stores on Amazon.co.uk; "market plus", run by the offshore subsidiary Entertainment Plus (Guernsey) Ltd, and "direct-offers", the UK based stock clearance arm of Entertainment UK.
EUK was the main supplier of Zavvi under an exclusive supply deal.[13] As a result of EUK entering into administration, on 24 December 2008 the Music and DVD retailer was also forced into administration as it was unable to source stock on favourable terms direct from suppliers.[14]