York-based online musical equipment retailer Gear4music said annual sales fell in the latest financial year as consumers’ disposable income was reduced by inflation and high interest rates, but it said underlying profit rose as it cut costs. 

The largest UK online retailer of musical instruments and music equipment said revenue fell 5% to £144.4 million for the year ended 31 March 2024. It said adjusted EBITDA, excluding some redundancy and other costs, rose 34% to £9.9 million. 

Its shares rose 15% on the London Stock Exchange. 

“As we stated heading into the year, whilst our drive for long-term growth remains unabated, our focus in FY24 was on reducing our cost-base and increasing efficiency, and delivering working capital improvements to materially improve our net debt position,” said Chairman Ken Ford. “This was reflective of a period of uncertainty for many retailers and consumers, with high inflation and interest rates weighing on consumer confidence and disposable income, and therefore we shifted our short-term focus accordingly to address these challenges.”

Alongside results, the company said Ford, who led the company through its initial public offering in 2015, would step down and retire from the  board next month. It said Andrew Wass will move from CEO to Executive Chair, to be replaced as CEO by Gareth Bevan, currently CCO.