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Gear4Music reports Black Friday dispatches up by 34% after work to upgrade infrastructure

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Gear4Music this week said that work to upgrade its warehousing and other infrastructure had paid off over the 2019 peak trading season. 

In 2018, the retailer, a Top250 trader in IRUK Top500 research, was affected as its warehouse ran out of space in the run up to Christmas, capping the number of sales it could make, while those it did make were more expensive to fulfil.

In 2019, however, it put a plan in place to improve its logistics and IT infrastructure, and says that both performed well during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend. Over Black Friday itself it sent out 34% more orders. 

Its total sales came in at £30.4m in the two months to December 31 2019. 

UK sales of £15.9m were up by 6% on last time, while sales in Europe and the rest of the world came in at £14.5m, up by 7%. Gross margin improved at the same time by 260bps to 26.5% while gross profits of £8m were 18%, or £1.2m, up on the previous year. 

Andrew Wass, chief executive of Gear4Music, said peak trading had been successful and reflected “the commercial and operational progress we have made across the business during the last calendar year”.

He added: “Our upgraded infrastructure demonstrated its resilience and capability over the Black Friday to Cyber Monday weekend, and we comfortably dispatched over 26,000 consignments, which was 34% more than last year’s Black Friday weekend. 

“Our three distribution locations have the  capacity headroom required to achieve our medium-term objectives without the need for further significant investment, as we return to focusing on and delivering new growth orientated projects during FY21.

“We are pleased to report that as a result of our focused strategic and operational initiatives, profits for the current financial year are expected to be at least in line with the board’s expectations. We remain confident in the medium to long-term growth opportunity, whilst continuing our focus on improving gross margins and sustainable profitability.”

York-based Gear4Music sells own-brand and third party branded musical instruments and equipment online and through showrooms in York, Sweden and Germany. Its ecommerce platform, developed in-house, supports websites delivering to more than 190 countries. 

Image: Screenshot of Gear4music.com/InternetRetailing Media

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