PMT, one of many UK’s largest musical instrument retail chains, has been positioned into administration, making it the newest in a string of musical instrument retailers to close its doorways.

The corporate’s 11 shops throughout the UK and one warehouse in Liverpool have been closed with fast impact. In accordance with Insider Media, 96 individuals have already been made redundant, with 48 individuals retained to help directors. PMT additionally operated a big on-line retailer, which has now been taken offline.

All of PMT’s remaining inventory has been offered to UK-based on-line retailer Gear4Music for an estimated value worth of “as much as £2.4 million”, alongside “sure intangible property” together with web sites, logos and business knowledge, value as much as £1.2 million.

S&T Audio Restricted – buying and selling as PMT – was the fourth largest retailer of musical devices within the UK when it comes to income with a reported annual turnover of £43 million for the 12 months that ended 30 April, 2024. It was additionally the biggest chain of brick and mortar music shops left within the nation, with areas in main cities.

A press launch from directors Interpath shared with Guitar.com notes a “number of challenges in current instances”, together with the aggressive pricing of devices shrinking the margins of top-branded gear, “fragile client confidence” affecting the gross sales of high-end merchandise, and rising prices related to lease, enterprise charges and staff.

It additionally explains how a string of current insolvencies throughout the musical devices sector have “tightened” credit score phrases throughout the availability chain, resulting in a “detrimental influence on PMT’s cashflow”.

PMT’s administrators initially sought to discover choices previous to submitting for the appointment of directors, together with a reorganisation of their retailer property, in addition to sale, refinance and funding choices. Nevertheless, no solvent choice was out there.

Rick Harrison, managing director at Interpath and joint administrator alongside Howard Smith, feedback: “It’s been a troublesome few years for specialist music tools retailers who’ve battled headwinds together with rising prices, dwindling margins and the rising value of residing affecting client behaviour. Sadly, regardless of the most effective efforts of the board, within the case of PMT, these challenges proved too troublesome to beat.

“Whereas we’re happy to have concluded a sale of the inventory and different property to Gear4music, our fast precedence is to offer assist to these staff who’ve been made redundant, together with supporting them with claims to the Redundancy Funds Service.”

PMT’s 11 brick-and-mortar shops included areas in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, Northampton, Norwich, Nottingham, Oxford and Romford, in addition to a warehouse facility in Liverpool. There was additionally a retailer in Cambridge that closed with out warning final week.

Sam is the Affiliate Information Editor for Guitar.com and MusicTech. Totally immersed in music tradition for almost all of his life, Sam has performed guitar for 20 years, studied music know-how and manufacturing at college, and likewise written for the likes of Guitar World, Whole Guitar, Steel Hammer and MusicRadar.