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Zavvi dot co dot uk.

The entertainment retailer Zavvi, formerly known as Virgin Megastores, went out of business in February so i was a little surprised the other day when i received an email from Zavvi.co.uk advertising the fact that they’d “bounced back”. Curious. I’d not seen anything about them getting a last minute reprieve or being bought-out by another company but then i checked in the small print of the message:

“Zavvi.co.uk is now owned and operated by the Hut Group”

I don’t think the Hut Group is a name many people would immediately recognise. It took a second but then i remembered a little online CD/DVD/Games retailer i’d once been told about. It was called The Hut. At the time I never took up the recommendation and probably dismissed it as yet another Amazon-wannabe – yet here they were years later buying themselves a ticket into the big leagues by acquiring a high street brand.

Only i don’t think that’s quite the case. You see, i visited The Hut Group website and it was immediately apparent these guys aren’t quite the small fry i’d assumed. Not only does TheHut.com still exist, but the company also runs SendIt.com (another site i’d labelled as a Amazon-wannabe in the past) and, more impressively, the online retail operations (for CDs, DVDs, Books and Games, at least) for ASDA, Co-op and Tesco. Sure the purchase of the Zavvi name gives the company a recognised brand to work from… but this wasn’t the “big break” i thought it was, rather a nice bit of expansion.

And if that expansion allows them to start competing with Amazon and Play.com on price, I’m more than happy to give them a whirl…