I bought some of my very first tabletop roleplaying games from a local Edinburgh company called Mac’s Models, which was on the Royal Mile and vanished years ago, and from Virgin Megastores on Princes Street.
Virgin Megastores became Zavvi. This weekend is the new brand’s birthday.
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The birthday sale is attention-worthy. Here are the headline categories;
- LEGO Sale – for example, the famous R2-D2 is down from £210 to £160, and the Spider-Man final battle set from £95 to £66.
- 3 for £30 on 4K and Blu-Ray – with Kick Ass, The Lost Boys, and The Thing is 4k Ultra in the deals.
- 3 for £20 tees – with Deadpool & Wolverine tees, Pokemon and lots of Star Wars designs in there.
- Mystery Funko t-shirt 5-packs – it’s a roll of the dice!
- Collectables – Gentle Giant’s Han Solo in Stormtrooper gear down from £250 to £80, Iron Studios’ Boromir from £165 to £60 and the worldwide exclusive of the Black Panther necklace from £60 to £13!
- 2 for £40 on Steelbooks – and Total Recall, Pulp Fiction, and Star Trek are included.
Zavvi has a history of deals – at one point, the whole group was bought for £1.
Zavvi’s Wild Ride
In September 2007, Virgin Megastores UK was sold to its management team for a nominal fee believed to have been £1. It rebranded as Zavvi and became the UK’s biggest independent entertainment retailer. All stores transitioned to the new brand, though some kept a separate Virgin Media section.
It was not an easy ride. Zavvi Ireland had just filed a €3.4 million loss, the stores were trying book sales, the company was investing in Zavvi Downloads to compete with Napster, and the idea of having limited editions and exclusives was just forming.
In late 2008, Zavvi struggled due to the collapse of its main supplier, Entertainment UK (EUK) – known to the British public as Woolworths. They owed EUK a massive debt and had trouble finding new suppliers with reasonable terms. Although Virgin Group stepped in to help, Zavvi faced financial difficulties, ultimately leading to its administration on Christmas Eve due to an inability to pay rent and other debts.
HMV bought some Irish stores, and a company called Head Entertainment bought five more stores and ALL of Zavvi’s remaining stock for £111,000. Head, created by former Zavvi boss Simon Douglas, did not survive.
The brand and domain name were sold to The Hut Group in 2009, and they moved to Zavvi.com in October.
For many geeks, the story ends there. However, last year, The Hut Group sold its OnDemand division, which included Zavvi. It was another management buyout, as the existing leadership team took over.
Here’s a geeky note: ZavviGroup Ltd, the new owners, has backing from an investment firm called Gordon Brothers. Gordon Brothers is the company that bought the remains of Polaroid in 2009 after the iconic camera company crashed and burned, failing to keep up with digital photography and the internet.
Happy birthday, Zavvi!
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