Gear4music (Holdings) PLC Trading Update (4632G)

TIDMG4M

RNS Number : 4632G

Gear4music (Holdings) PLC

02 March 2018

2 March 2018

Gear4music (Holdings) plc

Trading Update

Gear4music (Holdings) plc ("Gear4music" or "the Group"), the largest UK based online retailer of musical instruments and music equipment, today announces a year-end trading update covering the 12 months to 28 February 2018.

 
 GBP'000               12 months   12 months   % change 
                  to 28 February       to 28 
                            2018    February 
                                        2017 
--------------  ----------------  ----------  --------- 
 UK sales                 44,258      34,865       +27% 
--------------  ----------------  ----------  --------- 
 European and 
  Rest of the 
  World sales             35,842      21,263       +69% 
--------------  ----------------  ----------  --------- 
 Total sales              80,100      56,128       +43% 
--------------  ----------------  ----------  --------- 
 

Highlights

   --     43% increase in total revenue following continuing strong growth in the UK and Europe 
   --     Conversion across all websites improved from 2.75% to 3.25% 
   --     Active customer numbers increased by 39% over the year to 474,600 
   --     Own-brand sales growth kept pace with Other-brand growth 

Gear4music's Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Wass, said:

"We are very pleased to have grown our revenues from GBP56m last year to GBP80m 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."

The Group will report results for the financial year on 15 May 2018.

- Ends -

([1]) Active customers are customers of the Group who have purchased item(s) at least once in the last year

For further information, please contact

Gear4music [phone]

Andrew Wass, Chief Executive Officer

Chris Scott, Chief Financial Officer

Panmure Gordon [phone]

(Financial Adviser, Nominated Adviser and Broker)

Andrew Godber / Peter Steel - Investment Banking

Erik Anderson / Tom Salvesen - Corporate Broking

MHP Communications (Financial PR) [phone]

Simon Hockridge

Pete Lambie

Background to Gear4music

Operating from a Head Office in York, showrooms in York and Sweden, and Distribution Centres in York, Sweden and Germany, the Group sells own-brand musical instruments and music equipment alongside premium third-party brands including Fender, Yamaha and Gibson, to customers ranging from beginners to musical enthusiasts and professionals, in the UK, Europe and, more recently, into the Rest of the World.

Having developed its own e-commerce platform, with multilingual, multicurrency and fully responsive design websites delivering to over 190 countries, the Group has rapidly expanded its database and continues to build its overseas presence.

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014.

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

END

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March 02, 2018 02:00 ET (07:00 GMT)