A RECORD year for sales and profits has been reported by York music retailer Gear4Music as it invests £5.3 million in new premises in the city.

The Clifton Moor-headquartered international retailer of musical instruments has described the 12-months to February 28, 2017, as a “transformational year”, in which revenues rose 58 per cent to £56 million and gross profits hit £15 million, up from £9 million the year before.

Announcing its preliminary results for the year, the AIM-listed group said it has seen record profits after growing active customers by 50 per cent to 340,000.

The group, which is set to move to new offices at Holgate Park, reported strong revenue growth in international markets, up 124 per cent, with European operations enhanced by the opening of distribution centres in Sweden and Germany.

Andrew Wass, chief executive officer said: “This has been a transformational year for the business, with further expansion of the Gear4music brand driving record sales and profits.

“In particular we have seen significant expansion in our International business where sales have been very strong. We have therefore accelerated investment in our European infrastructure to improve our customer proposition and reach, most notably through the opening of two new distribution hubs in Sweden and Germany.

“Our growth has been underpinned by the quality of our e-commerce platform and we continue to drive innovation in this area to further improve our systems and websites, both in the UK and overseas.

“We begin our current financial year with good momentum and continued appetite from customers around the world for our market leading service and product offering.

“We are well positioned to deliver further growth and have plans in place to continue investing in our operational facilities and systems to support our growth plans.

“The next 12 months will be exciting as we move into our new head office in York, scale up our European operations, and enhance our worldwide proposition,and we remain confident in the long-term growth prospects for the Group.”

Gear4Music sells its own and third party brand instruments.