Gear4Music sales grow in company's first listed year

Gear4music was celebrating a successful maiden year as a public company on Friday, updating the market on its sales volumes ahead of its final results in May.

During the year, the music equipment e-tailer saw a 46% increase in total like-for-like sales, following strong growth in both the UK and Europe. Total sales were £35.49m in the year to 29 February, from £18.76m a year earlier.

UK sales totalled £26.02m, a 39% increase on the £18.77m a year earlier. European sales were £9.47m, up 73% from £5.48m.

The company's board said the strong European sales was in part driven by competitive pricing, with more than 190,000 new customers added during the year.

Gear4music also trialled seven day dispatch and delivery over Christmas, and was now continuing it acorss a larger range of products.

The board said this was continuing to drive sales volumes and positive customer feedback heading into the new financial year.

"We have been extremely pleased with the trading performance of Gear4music over the year," said chief executive officer Andrew Wass.

"It's been a pivotal 12 months for the business as we've been able to deliver strong growth in both the UK and Europe, whilst completing our IPO," he added.

Wass said the company was continuing to execute its strategy with proceeds from the IPO invested into stock, systems and website improvements which had helped Gear4music to significantly increase market share.

"We believe that the company is well capitalised and well positioned to continue implementing our profitable growth strategy, as we build on the success of our UK and international expansion with a constantly improving customer proposition," Wass concluded.

Gear4music was due to report its final results for the financial year on 10 May. At 1230 GMT on Friday, shares in Gear4music were up 6.84% to 140.5p.