THE St Albans branch of HMV is to close, administrators announced this morning.

Deloitte confirmed that a total of 66 of HMV’s 220 stores will be closed, affecting around 390 staff.

Nick Edwards, Joint Administrator, said: “As part of our ongoing review of HMV’s financial position, we have now completed a review of the store portfolio and have identified 66 loss making stores for closure.

“This step has been taken in order to enhance the prospects of securing the business’ future as a going concern.

“We continue to receive strong support from staff and are extremely grateful to them for their commitment during an understandably difficult period.

“All other key stakeholders remain very supportive and I continue to be hopeful of securing a future for the restructured business.”

There is no fixed date set for the city centre shop’s closure, however a store member said they will be finding out more information in the next 72 hours.

He said everyone had been saying how sad it was they were closing, and commented on the lack of other shops in the district which could offer the same products.