Gear4music reports annual sales to the tune of £80m

Sales at York-based Gear4music have risen to £80m, a 43% annual increase.

Gear4music, the largest UK based online retailer of musical instruments and music equipment, this morning published a trading update which showed its total annual sales to 28 February 2018 had rocketed to £80.1m – up from £56.1m during the same period in 2017.

In addition, the firm’s active customer numbers increased by 39% over the year, to 474,600.

 Gear4music’s 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.

“EBITDA for the second half of FY18 will be ahead of the six-month period ended 28 February 2017, although as a result of the investments we have made during the year into our customer proposition, infrastructure, staff, systems and marketing, we expect EBITDA for the full financial year ended 28 February 2018 to be in line with our FY17 result.

“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.”