Our history

Exec Chair and founder Andrew Wass was a sound recording engineer in 1995 when he identified an opportunity to supply small recording studios and educational establishments with personal computer based digital recording solutions.

In 2003 Andrew began to research the potential to retail own-brand beginner level musical instruments, with the intention of opening up the market by selling at lower prices than traditional music shops. After visiting several international exhibitions in the USA and China, Andrew placed a bulk order for guitars and listed them for sale on the then new gear4music.com website. The website generated £0.7m of revenue in its first full year of trading.

In 2012 a private equity investor invested in the Group providing the funding to further develop the e-commerce platform.

The Group relocated to its current UK-distribution centre in York in 2013 adding significant distribution and storage capacity, and shortly after opened a 9,000 square foot showroom.

In 2015 the Group listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange generating £4.4m of growth capital.

In 2016 the Group opened a Swedish distribution centre and followed this up in 2017 with the opening of a second European distribution centre in Germany.

In 2017 the Group acquired a software development business which brought software development in-house, and later that year acquired a 50,000 square foot freehold office property in York and relocated the Head Office team to the new headquarters.

In 2018 and in response to continued Scandinavian growth, the Group relocated and expanded its Swedish distribution centre to add further capacity to meet demand over coming years.

In 2021 following the Covid pandemic, the Group:

• acquired ‘Eden’, a Bass guitar amplification brand previously owned by Marshall Amplification, and followed this with the acquisition of ‘Premier’, a Drums and Percussion brand with a rich musical heritage dating back to 1922;
• opened new distribution centres in Ireland and Spain to address lingering post-Brexit challenges, and improve the Group’s European delivery proposition into adjacent markets; and
• acquired AV Distribution Ltd, an online retailer of Home Cinema and HiFi equipment and separately the 'AV.com' domain. This business was transferred onto the Group's highly scalable e-commerce platform and rebranded to 'AV.com', marking Gear4music’s entry into what Management believes to be a £400m UK audio video market that is currently dominated by high-street based retailers, and significantly increases our addressable market size.

In March 2023 the Group launched its second-hand platform marking its entry into the circular economy. The Group developed its own proprietary trade-in system that simplifies the process for consumers of selling their equipment, providing instant trade-in prices across thousands of products.