York-based Gear4music, the online retailer of musical instruments and equipment, on Tuesday reported “a transformational year of investment” in which its revenue rose 43% to £80.1 million.

For the year ended February 28, active customers grew 39% to 475,000 and international sales grew 69% to £35.8 million.

Amid the investment, pre-tax profit fell 43% to £1.5 million.

Gear4music CEO Andrew Wass said: “During the year we raised an additional £4.2m of growth capital, our European distribution centres became fully operational, and we moved into our new Head Office.

“We accelerated investment in our employees, systems, marketing and customer proposition, to firmly establish ourselves as one of Europe’s leading online retailers of musical instruments and music equipment.

“In my report last year, I explained that FY18 would be a period of targeted investment, and that would have short-term profitability implications.

“FY19 will be focused on achieving returns resulting from these investments, with the objective of delivering strong and sustainable revenue and profitability growth.

“As a result of the significant efforts of our team, and the investments we have made during FY18, we move into the new financial year with a market leading e-commerce platform, infrastructure and customer proposition.

“Whilst still early in the financial year, I am pleased to say that trading to date is in line with expectations and we are confident of achieving our objectives and hitting expectations for FY19.”