Gear4Music strikes the right note as it aims to create 50 jobs in next two years

The company recently moved into larger 135,000 sq ft premises on the outskirts of York to further expand its logistics capabilities in the UK market and continental Europe. Gear4Music has also updated its main website and international websites.

Gear4Music, which achieved a turnover of £12m last year, employs 100 staff. The company was founded in 2003 and received a £3.4m investment by Key Capital Partners (KCP) in 2012.

Andrew Wass, managing director of Gear4Music, told the Yorkshire Post: “If we keep growing as we are then we will certainly be taking on quite a few more staff.

“We are expecting to employ another 50 people within the next two years.”

Mr Wass said that the company now has 19 websites in total with markets such as France, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland performing particularly well.

“Twenty per cent of what we do is now going abroad”, he said. “That’s probably the most exciting thing we’re doing in terms of growth. That’s where we will grow a lot more again in the next year or so. It feels like we are just at the beginning of that journey. There’s still a lot more we can do.”

The company now has 10 multilingual staff in its workforce.

Mr Wass added: “This is an incredibly exciting time for us here at Gear4music.com and the 50 per cent growth we’ve achieved this year feels like it is just the beginning.

“We are already set for more success in 2014 as we expect the international side of our business set to grow very quickly. The updated, efficient design of the website will definitely support our growth and it’s great to see it go live in time for Christmas.

“It just goes to show that even in challenging times, if you have all the right ingredients you can still grow successfully – fantastic staff, appropriate finance and a good vision are all you need.”

The company currently has offices and a showroom at York Business Park but plans to move these to join its warehouse at its new site at Clifton Moor early next year. It previously had a warehouse at Shipton-by-Beningbrough.

Gear4Music said it has continued to grow sales through the development of its own range of branded products including guitars, pianos and drums. The company is also a retailer of leading market brands such as Fender, Gibson, Yamaha and Roland.

KCP is an investor in the small buyout market making investments of between £2m and £10m in companies with enterprise values of up to £30m. The firm operates nationally from offices in Birmingham, Leeds and London.