Our Price

Our Price
Company type	Private
Industry	Music and entertainment retail
Founded	1971
Founder	Gary Nesbitt, Edward Stollins, Mike Isaacs
Defunct	2004 (brick-and-mortar stores)
Fate	Brick-and-mortar stores closed; brand relaunched online in 2024
Headquarters	London, United Kingdom
Area served	United Kingdom, Ireland
Products	Music, entertainment products
Website	ourprice.com

Our Price is a UK-based online retailer specializing in music and entertainment, with a history as a brick-and-mortar chain operating across the United Kingdom and Ireland from 1971 until 2004. The brand's digital platform was relaunched in April 2024.

History

Established in 1971 by Gary Nesbitt, Edward Stollins, and Mike Isaacs, the inaugural store was located on London's Finchley Road. Originally named The Tape Revolution until 1976, the business concentrated on selling compact cassettes and eight-track cartridges.

The company rebranded to Our Price Records in 1976 to align with the growing popularity of vinyl records. With the introduction of CDs, the name evolved to Our Price Music in 1988, and by 1993 it was further shortened to simply Our Price.

Based in London, with offices situated on Kensington High Street and White City, the chain initially catered to rock music enthusiasts by importing discounted American albums. It also operated a remainder outlet called Surplus Records on Charing Cross Road and ran a mail order service promoted in music magazines.

Expansion accelerated from 1980 following the acquisition of the Harlequin Records chain, which helped broaden its presence nationwide. The company celebrated opening its 100th store on Kings Road, Chelsea; its 200th in Stirling; and its 300th location in Brixton, South London.

Expansion

During the early 1980s, Our Price rose to become the second-largest retailer of records and tapes in the UK, trailing only behind Woolworths. Its brand visibility was enhanced through radio advertisements featuring clever wordplay with the slogan "Get Down To Our Price," which later transitioned to television using an animated shopping bag mascot named Billy.

To capitalize on the booming VHS market, a sister brand called Our Price Video was created, leading to some towns hosting multiple Our Price outlets. This video-focused chain was later renamed Playhouse but struggled to secure a significant share of the VHS market and was ultimately closed by WH Smith in 1997.

In the late 1980s, HMV expanded under Thorn EMI ownership by launching larger-format stores, eventually overtaking Our Price in consumer popularity.

Flotation and sale to WH Smith

Our Price made history in 1984 as the first specialist music retailer to be publicly listed on the London Stock Exchange. Two years afterward, WH Smith acquired it for £43 million, incorporating Smith's Sound FX into its portfolio. In 1989, several top executives departed to establish rival chain MVC, which was later purchased by Woolworths.

In March 1994, WH Smith acquired a controlling interest in Richard Branson's Virgin Music, merging Virgin’s operations with Our Price to strengthen their position against HMV. The combined Virgin/Our Price entity saw profits rise by 10% in 1995 but experienced a 3% sales drop by May 1997 amid an industry-wide slowdown.

WH Smith opened 23 new Virgin Megastores while shutting down nineteen Our Price shops; despite having more Our Price outlets overall, over half of total revenue originated from larger Virgin locations situated in busier commercial areas.

By 1998, WH Smith sold Virgin/Our Price back to a Virgin Group subsidiary for £145 million after the stores reported losses totaling £127 million that year.

Sale to Virgin

Following Virgin Group's acquisition in 1998, an attempted management buy-out of Our Price did not succeed. By August 2000, Virgin declared it would phase out the Our Price brand from 102 locations, primarily across South East England, substituting them with either Virgin or VShop identities.

Neil Boote, commercial director at Our Price, explained to Billboard that many of the Our Price outlets had suffered from insufficient recent upgrades and appeared outdated. Virgin considered VShop to possess greater international appeal, unlike the localized Our Price brand, which was seen as emblematic of the 1980s High Street record store. Decisions concerning the fate of the remaining 127 Our Price stores were postponed while assessing VShop's market performance.

On 4 September 2000, five VShop stores reopened in Kensington, Ealing, Notting Hill Gate, Hammersmith, and Chatham. These locations emphasized popular CD titles and expanded their inventory to include VHS tapes, DVDs, and Virgin Mobile products—allocating about a quarter of the retail space to mobile offerings. The stores reduced the physical display of back catalogue CDs and encouraged customers to order items through in-store Find & Buy kiosks—an early integration of physical retail with online shopping known as a 'clicks and mortar' approach.

Virgin faced stiff competition from retailers such as The Link, Carphone Warehouse, HMV, and MVC; meanwhile, the rise of e-commerce diminished the relevance of ordering kiosks. Nonetheless, by April 2001, 100 Our Price outlets had transitioned to VShop branding with plans to convert the remaining 110 within that year. Additionally, Virgin shuttered 30 Our Price locations between 1999 and 2001.

Sale to Brazin

During the early 2000s, Virgin reduced its footprint in UK entertainment retail. In September 2007, it divested Virgin Megastores through a management buy-out that rebranded as Zavvi. Prior to this, in October 2001, Virgin sold its remaining 77 Our Price stores to Brazin Limited.

Brazin, a prominent Australian entertainment retailer operating 265 Sanity outlets, acquired Our Price for a nominal £2 along with exclusive Australian licensing rights for Virgin Entertainment. Although Brazin paid £900 million to Virgin initially, an equivalent amount was returned for tax optimization purposes. CEO Ian Duffell emphasized the robustness of the UK music market and anticipated a 50% revenue growth immediately following acquisition. Virgin retained a royalty equating to 1% of turnover and extended Brazin a £2 million loan facility. Brazin agreed to restrict Sanity store size and proximity within the UK to prevent conflicts with Virgin’s other music retail operations.

Early in 2002, Brazin encountered delays rebranding stores due to landlord negotiations and heritage preservation restrictions. The corporate headquarters relocated from central London to Alperton during this period. The first Sanity/Our Price rebranded store launched at London Waterloo station on 23 April 2002, followed by another at Paddington station on 9 May—both receiving favorable customer reactions and strong sales figures. Operating profits increased by 32% for the fiscal year ending June 2002.

In July 2002, Virgin reintroduced three VShops as Virgin Megastore Xpress outlets located in Brixton (marking Our Price’s 300th store), Hounslow, and Notting Hill—shifting focus away from mobile retail toward back catalogue products. Meanwhile, two additional VShops in Reading and Colchester were converted into Virgin Gamestores specializing in gaming software and hardware. By November that year, eighteen former VShops had adopted Megastore Xpress branding, resulting in approximately a 30% year-on-year sales uplift.

In November 2002, Brazin expanded its presence by purchasing another 41 VShop music and mobile phone stores from Virgin for £2 million, complementing its existing Sanity shops network. New outlets opened by January 2003 in Connswater (Northern Ireland), Southsea, and Waltham Cross. Combined under the Sanity/Our Price/VShop umbrella, this network grew to around 130 stores across the UK.

Acquisition by Primemist

In June 2003, the launch of OurPrice.co.uk marked an expansion into a comparison shopping platform, offering products directly online as well as through third-party retailers, diversifying beyond just music and entertainment items.

By September 2003, despite showing signs of improved financial performance, Brazin Limited divested its entire portfolio of 118 UK Sanity outlets to Primemist Limited, led by Lee Skinner, for approximately £9 million, attributing the sale to unmet business expectations. While some locations continued to operate under the Our Price name, all VShop branches had ceased operations.

Primemist encountered difficulties due to supplier-imposed credit limitations and entered administration by December 2003. No purchasers emerged for either the entire enterprise or its segments. Consequently, by April 2004, administrators from BDO Stoy Hayward shut down all remaining Our Price stores, leading to around 400 job losses.

The last standing Our Price store in Chesterfield held a clearance event, with leftover inventory donated to Oxfam retail outlets.

Digital Retail Presence

Following the closure of physical stores, Lee Skinner maintained ownership of the Our Price trademarks through Our Price Entertainment Limited. The OurPrice.co.uk website continued briefly, focusing on sales of charity-related memorabilia before becoming inactive. In September 2009, Skinner transferred the trademarks to entertainment retailer HMV.

Subsequently, Skinner and business partners managed OurPrice.com and OurPrice.co.uk via Our Price Records Limited, conducting charity auctions and merchandise sales until the company entered administration in April 2017. During the mid-2010s, Skinner alongside Karen Ferreira raised £3.6 million from small-scale investors through cold-calling techniques. These investors experienced substantial financial losses; in 2020, the Financial Conduct Authority determined that share sales had been promoted misleadingly. As a result, Skinner and Ferreira were mandated to provide compensation and were disqualified from directorship roles for ten and seven years respectively. Ferreira successfully appealed on the basis that she was unaware of any deceptive conduct; meanwhile, Skinner was declared bankrupt.

In June 2022, HMV sold the Our Price trademarks to OurPrice.com Retail Limited, which had also acquired associated web domains. By April 2024, this entity relaunched Our Price as an online-only brand coinciding with the twentieth anniversary of the final store’s closure. This digital platform emphasizes vinyl records, branded merchandise, and high-fidelity audio equipment, with future plans to expand offerings to include CDs, cassettes, and books.

References