Gear4Music snares AV Online in £9.2m acquisition
Gear4music, the UK’s largest retailer of musical instruments and equipment, has agreed to purchase AV Online in an acquisition deal to the tune of £9.2m.
Founded in 2013 AV Online is a retailer of audio-visual equipment, such as home cinema systems. Gear4music will also purchase the domain name AV.com with a view to launching an e-commerce platform in the final quarter of 2022.
Gear4music’s Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Wass, said the acquisition was in line with the company’s upbeat “growth strategy.”
He said, “operating in a £400m UK audio video market… the Board believes that AV Online will greatly benefit from being transferred onto the Group’s highly scalable European e-commerce platform and being rebranded to ‘AV.com’.”
AV Online took unaudited revenues of £8.6m in 2020, up 54 per cent compared to the previous year. Meanwhile, the music supplier saw UK sales return to growth during July and August after a flat start to the year followed soaring interest in musical instruments during the lockdowns of 2020.
Gear4music was somewhat cautious about the road ahead, noting that European sales have remained behind last year, primarily as a result of post-Brexit cross border shipping challenges creating a less competitive delivery proposition in some key markets.
Nonetheless, the Board said confidence is high that the Group will deliver on its long-term expansion plans with new distribution centres in Ireland and Spain expected to be operational by 2023.
Read more: Gear4music doubles annual profit as Brits turn to instruments during lockdown