Gear4music is a British online retailer of

musical instrument A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person who pl ...

s and

musical equipment Audio equipment refers to devices that reproduce, record, or process sound. This includes microphones, radio receivers, AV receivers, CD players, tape recorders, amplifiers, mixing consoles, effects units, headphones, and speakers. Audio equipm ...

. The company's headquarters is in Holgate,

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

, England, with

distribution centre A distribution center for a set of products is a warehouse or other specialized building, often with refrigeration or air conditioning, which is stocked with products (goods) to be redistributed to retailers, to wholesalers, or directly to con ...

s in Germany, Spain, Sweden, and Ireland.

History

The company was founded in 1995 by

recording engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduction, ...

Andrew Wass, originally supplying equipment to small

recording studio A recording studio is a specialized facility for sound recording, mixing, and audio production of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home project studio large enoug ...

s. In March 2012 the

private equity In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a ty ...

firm Key Capital Partners (KCP) bought a £3.4 million minority stake in the group to develop its e-commerce platform. The company saw its

sales turnover In accounting, revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of goods and services related to the primary operations of the business. Commercial revenue may also be referred to as sales or as turnover. Some companies receive revenue ...

rise from £12.3 million in the year to February 2013, to £24.2 million in February 2015. Gear4music completed an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

(IPO) in June 2015, listing on the

Alternative Investment Market AIM (formerly the Alternative Investment Market) is a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange that was launched on 19 June 1995 as a replacement to the previous Unlisted Securities Market (USM) that had been in operation since 1980. It allows ...

(AIM) in London, with KCP retaining a 24 per cent stake. In 2013 the company moved to its distribution centre in York. The company subsequently opened

s in

Mülheim Mülheim, officially Mülheim an der Ruhr () and also described as ''"City on the River"'', is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. It is located in the Ruhr Area between Duisburg, Essen, Oberhausen and Ratingen. It is home to many compan ...

, Germany,

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, Spain,

Rosersberg Rosersberg is a locality situated in Sigtuna Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden with 1,671 inhabitants in 2010. It grew up around a railway station and got its name from the nearby Rosersberg Palace, one of the royal palaces of Sweden. Rosersb ...

, Sweden, and

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

, Ireland. In December 2021 the company completed the acquisition of AV Distribution Ltd, a retailer of audio-visual equipment, including hi-fi speakers, home cinema systems and specialist furniture. The company reported a drop in sales over the summer of 2022, partly attributed to the

2022 United Kingdom heat waves The 2022 United Kingdom heatwaves were part of several heatwaves across Europe and North Africa. The United Kingdom experienced three heatwaves; the first was for three days in June, the second for three days in July, and the third for six days ...

, which meant people spent more time outdoors. From the period April to September, they reported a pre-tax loss of £1 million, whereas in the same period the year before, they reported nearly £2 million in profit.

References

External links

Retail websiteCorporate website
Companies based in York Retail companies of England Musical instrument retailers Retail companies established in 1995 British companies established in 1995 {{UK-retail-company-stub