Gear4music celebrates strong festive trading

The York-based firm, the largest UK-based online retailer of musical instruments and music equipment, said sales rose 30 per cent to £52m in the three months to December 31. Gross profits leapt 47 per cent to £16m over the festive period.

As a result of the very successful Christmas trading period, and early indications of positive trading post-Brexit, the firm said 2021 earnings are likely to be ahead of expectations.

Gear4music’s chief executive, Andrew Wass, said: “I am pleased to report a very successful 2021 peak trading period, that continues to reflect the significant commercial and operational progress that we have made during the last two years, alongside the continuing hard work and commitment of our staff.

"Strong growth during the period has been driven by products that can be used and played at home, includingguitars, keyboards and home recording equipment. We know many of our customers are looking forward to rehearsing and performing together again, and as social distancing restrictions are eased, we expect our live sound,drums and orchestral categories to return to stronger growth."

He said the end of the Brexit transition period and the UK’s departure from the EU customs union was not without its challenges, which the firm had extensively planned for.

He added: "New cross border processing costs have been introduced, alongside the added complexity and cost of additional rules of origin duties contained within the Brexit trade deal."

He said the planned scale-up of Gear4music's European hub infrastructure has provided a solid operational platform to help overcome these challenges, and also helped to mitigate the impact of port closures in December as a result of Covid-19.

"Whilst there are further refinements for us to make, I am pleased that the planned reconfiguration of our delivery systems and transport network has performed well, and has supported stronger trading since January 1 than theboard had initially expected," said Mr Wass.

"As a result of the very successful Christmas trading period, and early indications of positive trading post-Brexit, we expect to report results for the full financial year ahead of recently upgraded consensus market expectations. Notwithstanding what has been an exceptional period of trading since lockdowns began in March 2020, the board remains confident that the group is well resourced and positioned to deliver further growth.”