YORK-based music retail specialist Gear4Music has tuned into a record year as its first results as a list company takes the company out of the red with a 46 per cent rise in revenues.

The Clifton Moor-headquartered international retailer of musical instruments and equipment, saw turnover hit nearly £35.5 million after growing UK sales by 39 per cent to £26 million, while European sales were boosted by a 73 per cent hike to £9.5 million.

The full year results, to the year ending February 29, 2016, are the first to be reported the company since its IPO in June 2015, which raised £10.3 million.

After finishing 2015 with debts of £5 million, Gear4Music was this year able to finish the period with a net cash balance of £2.6 million after seeing gross profits rise by 36 per cent to £9.2 million.

Describing the 12-months as a record year, with its busiest ever day recorded on Black Friday 2015, Gear4Music said it saw "impressive" website visitor traffic, serving more than 10 million unique visitors.

The company also extended its product range, with sales of own brand stock growing by 33 per cent.

Commenting on the results, Andrew Wass, chief executive officer said: "In our first set of annual results as a listed company, it's very pleasing to be reporting a record year with strong growth across our core UK business and excellent progress into European markets, which has led to increased revenues and profits.

"We have achieved this growth by investing into our website platform, infrastructure and product ranges, strengthening our customer offer, and establishing ourselves as the go-to online destination for musical instruments and equipment.

"With more than 10 million visitors to our websites during the year, improved conversion and an increasing number of active customers, our investment strategies are delivering the growth we anticipated, and following strong sales momentum in both the UK and internationally during the first two months of the new financial year, we remain optimistic for the year ahead."

Operating from an office, showroom and distribution centre in York, the Group sells own-brand musical instruments and music equipment alongside 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.

Mr Wass said European sales growth of 73 per cent across 18 countries "clearly demonstrates" the progress being made internationally, but added: "with an estimated annual value of £4.3 billion for the market we are still at the beginning of this journey".