York-based music equipment retailer Gear4Music’s latest financial figures show that it added almost £7m in sales in the six months to September. The business saw a particularly big rise in overseas sales, and its £49.4m revenues were split almost evenly between UK and international sales.

Gear4Music also said that it had achieved its “primary objective for the period of materially improving gross margins” which rose by 2.5 percentage points to 25.2%.

Chief executive Andrew Wass said: “We have restored our gross margins to FY18 levels whilst at the same time continuing to grow our revenues and taking market share.

“International sales growth continues to be strong, and whilst the UK market remains highly competitive, we have returned to a more profitable margin structure and believe that this is the right strategy from which to grow our revenues going forward.”

Gear4Music believes it is now in a strong position to benefit from the busier second half of the year having “a robust logistics operation in place” .

Wass added: “We are confident that we now have the capacity and efficiency required to make the most of the opportunities available to us.”