Gear4Music today reported a 43% sales lift in its latest financial year.
The online retailer of musical instruments and equipment, a Top250 retailer in IRUK Top500 research, said in a full-year trading update that its revenue rise to £80m in the year to February 28 followed strong growth in its UK and European markets. UK sales of £44.3m were 27% up on last time, while European sales of £35.8m were 69% ahead.
Website conversion improved to 3.25% from 2.75% at the same time, while active customer numbers rose by 39% to 474,600.
Gear4Music chief executive Andrew Wass said: “We are very pleased to have grown our revenues from £56m last year to £80m this year, particularly given the heightened economic uncertainty that has impacted many retailers during the last 12 months.
As previously communicated, in 2017 we focused on scaling-up our business to ensure we have the capacity for further growth, investing into our European distribution centres, our new head office in York, and expanding our platform development capability.”
He said that that although the company’s earnings before tax and one-off costs would be similar in second half of the year, they would be similar in the full-year to the previous one following investment in the customer proposition, infrastructure, staff, systems and marketing.
He added: “We are confident that we are well placed to significantly grow both revenues and profitability during the next 12 months, as margins normalise, and the up-front investments we have made clearly demonstrate their ongoing value to the business.”
York-based Gear4Music sells musical instruments and equipment under its own brand as well as from names including Fender, Yamaha and Gibson. Its business model is predominantly online but it has a showroom in York and has recently opened one in Sweden. It also has distribution centres in York, Sweden and Germany and delivers to more than 190 countries in total. Its strategy is one of growth through international expansion.
