Mixed bag for Gear4music as the firm invests in growth

GEAR4MUSIC have posted their first half-year results since their IPO.

The online instrument retailer has increased revenue by 43% to £12.5m, but pretax losses increased further to £1.06m, from a loss of £914,000 in the same period to 31 August last year.

Costs of the IPO impacted on these results, with administrative expenses  which included £606,000 of exceptional costs in relation to their IPO.

Other areas of the business are faring better, with a 62% growth in European business, and £395,000 investment in their digital platform.

Gear4music’s IPO in June saw the musical retailer raise £10m in gross proceeds.

Andrew Wass, chief executive officer said: “We are seeing increasing appetite from customers as we improve our branded and Own-brand product offering, our website interface, back-end systems and service levels, both in the UK and across Europe.

“Since our IPO we have accelerated investment across the business – in the ecommerce platform, in stock and in people – to ensure we are strongly positioned to deliver on our growth strategy.

“The Group continues to trade with good momentum and in line with the Board’s expectations and is well placed heading into the key Christmas trading period.”