Gear4Music rises after strong performance

The price of shares in AIM-listed online equipment retailer Gear4Music (LON:G4M) climbed by 12.10% to 227p (as of 14:15 BST) as total sales rose by 16% due to a strong international performance. Gross margins improved by 250 basis points and gross profits were up by 29%.

CEO Andrew Waas commented: “I am very pleased to report that we have achieved our primary objective for the period of materially improving our gross margins. By cutting out less profitable sales and focusing on higher margin products, we have delivered an FY20 H1 gross margin of 25.2% and a 29% increase in gross profit.

“We have restored our gross margins to FY18 levels whilst at the same time continuing to grow our revenues and taking market share. International sales growth continues to be strong, and whilst the UK market remains highly competitive, we have returned to a more profitable margin structure and believe that this is the right strategy from which to grow our revenues going forward.

“Our warehousing and infrastructure teams have worked tirelessly during the year to ensure we have a robust logistics operation in place ahead of our peak FY20 H2 trading period, and we are confident that we now have the capacity and efficiency required to make the most of the opportunities available to us.

“Our re-focused growth strategy is now in place and we are confident that the business is effectively configured to achieve a sustainable level of profitable growth. As such, we continue to trade in line with our full year EBITDA expectations as we head towards our seasonal peak“.