WHEN Gear4music.com, the York-based retailer of musical instruments and equipment, spoke to The Press after winning Growth Business Of The Year at The Press Business Awards in 2007, it said it hoped to increase turnover from £3 million to £4 million.

This year, after selling its 50,000th electric guitar, it expects to turn over more than £10 million and it is hoping to take home a second gong from The Press Business Awards for Large Business Of The Year, or Science And Technology Business Of The Year.

Managing director Andrew Wass, who founded the company in 2003 after having run The Submarine recording studio in York, said the business’s website, run from its headquarters at York Business Park, attracts new customers by providing a “resource for musicians” rather than just selling.

It includes a popular music news channel and has been exploiting social media, with more than two million views of its YouTube channel.

The business, which employs 40 people and has three warehouses in York, plans to expand its European trade to 25 per cent of its revenues in the coming year, which would mean expanding the business by a further 15 employees.