Shares of York-based online musical equipment retailer Gear4music rose roughly 30% on Friday after it published a trading update for its AGM saying that trading during the financial year to date has been in line with the board’s expectations.

Gear4music said it believes that consensus market expectations for the year ending March 31, 2024, prior to the AGM were for revenues of £161.2 million and EBITDA of £10 million.

The York firm said it prioritising an increase in gross margins and cost base reduction to improve profitability, ahead of revenue growth.

Gear4music CEO Andrew Wass said: “We are pleased to report that trading during the financial year to date has been in line with the board’s expectations.

“As highlighted in our statement on 20 June 2023, we are prioritising increasing gross margins and cost base reduction to improve profitability, ahead of revenue growth.

“We are pleased with the progress being made in these areas, which has included driving significant cost efficiencies in our software development unit.

“Our recently launched second hand system is trading well and continues to show signs of being a long-term growth driver, having successfully facilitated several thousand trade-ins since its March 2023 debut.

“During the last few weeks, we have also launched the system into our European markets, and we are confident it will evolve to become a meaningful component of the group’s future revenue portfolio.

“We are well prepared for the upcoming seasonal peak trading period, backed by a robust level of working capital availability, and the board retains its confidence in our medium and longer-term profitable growth strategy.

“The group intends to release a trading update for the six-month period ending 30 September 2023 on 19 October 2023, followed by half year results on 14 November 2023, at which time further details of improved gross margins and the underlying cost reductions achieved will be shared.”