GEAR4MUSIC (HOLDINGS) PLC

Business and Financial Review • Jul 29, 2016

National Storage Mechanism | Additional information

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RNS Number : 5849F

Gear4music (Holdings) PLC

29 July 2016

29 July 2016

Gear4music (Holdings) plc

Trading Update for the four months ended 30 June 2016

Very encouraging start to the year, positioned for growth

Gear4music (Holdings) plc ("Gear4music" or "the Group"), the largest UK based online retailer of musical instruments and music equipment, today issues a trading update covering 1 March to 30 June 2016 (the 'period') ahead of its Annual General Meeting to be held later today.

£'000	4 months to 30 June 2016	4 months to 30 June 2015	% change
UK sales	9,081	6,319	44%
European sales	4,701	1,986	137%
Total sales	13,782	8,305	66%

Highlights

·     66% increase in total like-for-like sales with strong growth in both the UK and Europe

·     European sales contributed 34% of total sales compared to 24% in the same period last year

·     Strong European sales growth throughout the period

·     First European Distribution centre expected to be operational before Christmas 2016

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

"We are very encouraged by our trading performance during the first four months of the new financial year. We continue to invest the proceeds from our IPO in June 2015 in our ecommerce system, stock and staff to deliver on our strategy of constantly improving our proposition, which helped drive the 66% sales growth in the period. 

"Gross margins and administrative expenses over the period were broadly consistent with management's expectations for the current financial year, which puts the Group in a good position to deliver full year profit expectations.

"The Group is well capitalised and well positioned to take advantage of the short-term export opportunities created by the UK's EU Referendum vote, while our long-term confidence in our European business is reflected by our commitment to establish a physical European footprint before the end of the calendar year."

- Ends -

For further information, please contact

Gear4music                                                                                                                                        +44 843 155 0800

Andrew Wass, Chief Executive Officer

Chris Scott, Chief Financial Officer

Panmure Gordon                                                                                                                             +44 20 7886 2500

(Financial Adviser, Nominated Adviser and Broker)

Fred Walsh / Peter Steel / Duncan Monteith - Investment Banking

Erik Anderson / Tom Salvesen - Corporate Broking

MHP Communications (Financial PR)                                                                                      +44 20 3128 8100

Andrew Leach

Simon Hockridge

Isabelle Grainger

Background to Gear4music

Operating from an office, showroom and distribution centre in York, 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 and, more recently, into Europe.

Having developed its own ecommerce platform, with multilingual, multicurrency and fully responsive design websites covering 19 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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