True Gold Coast Icon Long Established Music Store For Sale

Business description

Sunflower Music has been the Gold Coast’s most iconic music store for over 30 years, with one of the widest ranges of music and music merchandise in Australia.

Apart from its vast range of pop & rock titles, Sunflower Music prides itself on the great selection of alternative, metal, reggae, jazz, blues, and world music that it carries. It is this wide range and deep back catalogue, along with its willingness to source what isn’t in stock, that has given Sunflower Music the positive reputation it enjoys. Ordering on a weekly basis from the US, as well as from both major & niche suppliers locally, allows Sunflower to source hard-to-find items, and to fill customer orders as quickly and efficiently as possible – one of the things it is most known for. Customers regularly tell us “if you can’t get it nobody can”!

Being such a long- and well-established business, it should go without saying that Sunflower boasts a strong repeat clientele & customer loyalty. Sunflower’s customer base is two-fold, catering equally to Gold Coast residents, and tourists. Many tourists, especially from other parts of Australia and New Zealand, are frequent visitors to the Gold Coast, and make a point of visiting Sunflower on each trip. As an independent music store, Sunflower prides itself on its personalized service and customer relationships.

Apart from CDs, Sunflower is also known for its extensive, and growing, range of vinyl. Although CDs are still the major part of the pre-recorded music industry, vinyl is seeing a resurgence, as young and not-so-young discover, or rediscover, its appeal. Together with a comprehensive selection of DVDs, and a great range of music merchandise (T-shirts, posters, figurines, miniature band guitars, and much more), this makes Sunflower an interesting browsing place – and is a huge point of difference to chain stores. Recently turntables have been added to stock, to support the growth in vinyl sales, and Sunflower also sells tickets for gigs and festivals, not only a great source of additional income, but ticket sales helps get the hardcore music fans in to the store on a regular basis.

Having been located at Pacific Fair since its inception, but with its current lease due to expire in May 2012, the present owners are keen to allow the new owners the opportunity to determine the future positioning of the business.

Remaining at Pacific Fair is, of course, an option, as despite its recent struggles Pacific Fair still enjoys a great geographic location on the Gold Coast, and at some point will no doubt regain its place as the region’s shopping centre of choice.

Alternatively, there are certainly reasons to believe that in this day and age, an independent music store would be better served by not being in a major centre, and therefore having the flexibility and versatility to develop and expand in other directions, while significantly reducing its overheads. Locations either in the main Broadbeach precinct, or directly on the Gold Coast Highway in close proximity to both Pacific Fair and Broadbeach, are currently available for significantly less than the current rental.

A move such as this would be an ideal time to expand into the second-hand market. With the recent resurgence of vinyl, this is most definitely an area of potential growth. The opportunity also exists to build a significant online presence through development of the currently inactive Sunflower website, and to better utilise the existing customer database with a regular e-newsletter.

As far as the ongoing viability of independent music stores is concerned, well, there does indeed appear to be a future! For the first time since 2004, CD sales in the USA and UK increased in 2011, and in both those markets sales of physical CDs are outperforming downloading three-fold. And as chain stores cut back their music departments the competition is actually decreasing, leaving more room in the marketplace for an established independent with a reputation as positive as Sunflower Music.

At this point in time Sunflower requires owner/s with passion, energy and a vision for the future. The current owners no longer wish to be involved full-time in the business, and therefore consider it the right time to pass the reins to someone more committed to its long-term future. If you can see the potential, the opportunity exists for a great return on investment.

Urgent sale required.
Reduced to $100,000 + SAV (approx $200,000)