Musical instrument seller Gear4Music has seen revenue and profit growth despite headwinds including a poor consumer spending, systems issues and aggressive discounting from rivals before their collapse.
The York-based online retailer saw a 2% lift in revenue to £146.7m in the year to the end of March, as pre-tax profit increased from £600,000 to £1.6m. Gross margins fell slightly from 27.3% to 27%.
Gear4Music has recently scooped up stock and intangible assets from failed competitors GAK.co.uk and S&T Audio Limited, with bosses saying the market is consolidating. The year saw the London-listed business act on its growth strategy, including the development of own-brand products, expansion of its second hand range, strengthening of marketing capabilities and investment in its proprietary e-commerce platform.
º£½ÇÊÓƵ revenue was up 8% to £90.2m on the prior year, driven by new initiatives launched in the º£½ÇÊÓƵ. Meanwhile European revenues were 8% down on 2024 at £54.7m, which was said to be down to a challenging market with "underperforming competitors resorting to aggressive discounting" and continued weak consumer confidence.
Andrew Wass, executive chair, said: "We are pleased to confirm that our FY25 financial results are in line with the year-end trading update published on 2 April 2025, with growth in revenue, Ebitda and profit before tax, alongside a further reduction in net debt. Following the implementation of a wide range of cost reduction measures during FY24, and the relaunch of our growth strategy in June 2024, our primary focus during FY25 has been to begin the successful execution of this revised strategy.
"On April 16, 2025, we reported a return to double-digit sales growth from mid-March onwards, and we are pleased to confirm that since then, both sales momentum and gross margins have continued to increase. This encouraging performance reflects the early positive impact of our revised strategy, alongside a more favourable competitive landscape following the recent failure of two º£½ÇÊÓƵ competitors.
"As previously reported the group subsequently acquired selected assets from their administrators, further strengthening our market position. Although it remains early in the new financial year, the group has benefited from these developments and the board is uplifting its expectations for the group's financial performance for the year ending March 31, 2026."
