Gear4music

Gear4music Limited
Formerly
  • Soundpro Limited (12–25 October 1995)[1]
  • Submarine Music Limited (1995–2002)[1]
  • Red Submarine Limites (2002–2015)[1]
Founded12 October 1995 (1995-10-12) in Leeds, England[2]
Headquarters
York
,
England[1]
Websitegear4music.com

Gear4music Limited[1] is a British online retailer of musical instruments and musical equipment. The company's headquarters is in Holgate, York, England, with distribution centres in Germany, Spain, Sweden, and Ireland.

History

The company was founded in 1995 by recording engineer Andrew Wass. It originally supplied equipment to small recording studios.[3] In March 2012 the private equity firm Key Capital Partners (KCP) bought a £3.4 million minority stake in the group to develop its e-commerce platform.[4][5] The company saw its sales turnover rise from £12.3 million in the year to February 2013, to £24.2 million in February 2015.[5]

Gear4music completed an initial public offering (IPO) in June 2015, listing on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in London,[6] with KCP retaining a 24 per cent stake.[5] In 2013 the company moved to its distribution centre in York. The company subsequently opened distribution centres in Mülheim, Germany,[7] Barcelona, Spain,[8] Rosersberg, Sweden, and Dublin, Ireland.[9]

In December 2021 the company completed the acquisition of AV Distribution Ltd, a retailer of audio-visual equipment which included hi-fi speakers, home cinema systems and specialist furniture.[10] The company reported a drop in sales over the summer of 2022, partly attributed to the 2022 United Kingdom heat waves, which meant that people spent more time outdoors. From the period April to September a pre-tax loss of £1million was reported, compared to profits of nearly £2million in the same period of the previous year.[11]

On 11 June 2025 after competitor Play Music Today entered administration, Gear4music subsequently bought from the administrators certain stock, together with certain intangible assets including websites and trademarks, but none of the trading business.[12]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Gear4music Limited overview - Find and update company information - Gov.uk". Companies House. 12 October 1995. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
  2. ^ "Incorporation". Companies House. 12 October 1995. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
  3. ^ Evans, Graeme (21 November 2022). "Insider: chiefs load up on shares tipped to double". Interactive Investor.
  4. ^ "Key Capital Partners tune up with Gear4music.com deal". Insider Media Ltd. 20 March 2012.
  5. ^ a b c "Key Capital Partners raises £55m for latest SME private equity fund". Yorkshire Post. 23 November 2015.
  6. ^ Hickey, Shane (28 May 2015). "Gear4music instrument retailer plans to open Soho store after IPO". The Guardian.
  7. ^ "Mülheim: Wat machen Sie denn da, Herr Mallach?". Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (in German). 27 July 2020.
  8. ^ "AR Racking equipa el nuevo almacén en Barcelona del retailer de música Gear4music". El Mercantil. 31 January 2022.
  9. ^ McMahon, Conor (5 July 2021). "Gear4music opens Dublin hub after off-the-scale year". The Times.
  10. ^ Parr, Jacqui (2 December 2021). "Gear4music acquires AV Online business - Retail Gazette". Retail Gazette.
  11. ^ Tamzin Kraftman (16 November 2022). "Gear4Music sales hurt by UK summer heatwave". Guitar.com. Retrieved 24 November 2022.
  12. ^ https://www.gear4music.com/information/PMT
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