GEAR4MUSIC (HOLDINGS) PLC

Earnings Release • Jan 6, 2016

National Storage Mechanism | Additional information

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RNS Number : 9401K

Gear4music (Holdings) PLC

06 January 2016

6 January 2016

Gear4music (Holdings) plc

Trading Update

Gear4music (Holdings) plc ("Gear4music" or "the Company"), the largest UK based online retailer of musical instruments and music equipment, today announces a Christmas trading update for the two months  from 1 November 2015 to 31 December 2015.

£'000	2 months to 31 December 2015	2 months to 31 December 2014	% change
UK sales	7,487	5,693	+32%
European sales	2,585	1,683	+54%
Total sales	10,072	7,376	+37%

Highlights

·     37% increase in total like-for-like sales, following strong growth in both the UK and Europe

·     Dispatching and delivering goods seven days a week during the Christmas period helped to increase website conversion, with a 63% rise in mobile revenue compared with the same period last year

·     Active Customer1 numbers up by 30% to 211,000 at 31 December 2015, compared with 31 December 2014

·     Sales of Microphone and PA systems were particularly strong during the festive period, being 83% up on the same period last year, helped by the resurgence of live music performances in the UK's pubs and other venues, following on from the popularity of music festivals during the summer

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

"Gear4music delivered a strong performance during the festive period with more visitors to our websites becoming customers, and increased sales through mobile devices.

"We remain confident that as we continue to enhance our websites, extend our product ranges and strengthen our fulfilment systems, we will deliver results in line with market expectations for the financial year ending 29 February 2016."

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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

Charlotte Coulson

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.

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

the last year

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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