Art Gallery The Gascoigne Gallery For Sale

Business description

The Gascoigne Gallery is located in the affluent spa town of Harrogate. It was founded by the current owner over 10 years ago and moved to its present site in 2002,were it now sits in its enviable surroundings.

The gallery prides itself on the quality of the artwork it attracts and over the past five years such famous names as Picasso, Dahli ,Turner and Hockney have all been featured.
Customers are pleasantly surprised at the informal and warm ambience that the owner,his wife and staff have created, giving a relaxing and non pretentious atmosphere to this lovely town centre gallery.

Paintings sell from as little as £40 up to £15,000 giving a full mix and breadth of work.
Exhibitions are changed every three weeks making sure that there is a good mix of styles available on display, and the vendor has joined the Art Councils “Own Art” campaign allowing buyers, interest free loans to purchase artwork from the gallery.

Marketing of the gallery has been fairly extensive with over 15,000 visitors having come through the doors in the past year and a superb website which grows in stature by the day.

This is a profitable, commercial, art gallery with potential to grow on the solid foundations that have been laid down by the owner. It runs on low overheads, very little stock outlay and trading hours are extremely realistic.


Equipment

All furniture, fixture and fittings are included in the price.

Key Strengths:

The location of the gallery in Harrogate is superb. On the edge of the town centre, there is ample free disc parking around the gallery and it is close by to a number of high quality shops ,restaurants and coffee houses in the Montpelier area of the town. Harrogate attract thousands of visitors & tourists each year either to visit the Yorkshire Dales or to visit the International Exhibition Centre, were many conferences and trade shows are held.

There is never a shortage of artists and artwork available to display in the gallery. Exhibitions are planned many months ahead and there are special themed exhibitions in the pipeline.
The owner has worked extensively on a strategic marketing campaign to attract new and existing clients to the gallery.

This includes a monthly mail to over 2,500 people on their database, inviting them to the latest artwork offerings which is also mirrored on the website.

Most artwork is supplied by the individual artist on sale or return. This allows the gallery to make margins of up to 50% on these works without any outlay. To exhibit world renown artists, you have to deal with an artists agent. This increases the footfall into the gallery, whilst still achieving sales margins of 25 -40%.

Property information

Location:

Leasehold, circa 1,500 sq.ft on one floor. The gallery is open plan with a relaxed atmosphere across three rooms.
There is ample storage area at the back of the gallery with a small office, kitchen area and toilet facilities.
The lease expires in 2012 and rent & rates are currently circa £15,793 per annum.

Other information

Expansion potential:

Growth and Expansion:

Inside the gallery itself, all available space is utilised. The challenge now is to increase the footfall of people visiting this now established commercial gallery. There is massive scope to try new and exciting exhibitions including other forms of artwork.

Key Opportunities:

The current owners have set out the foundations for this gallery and it works well with a healthy profit margin and low overheads. There is potential for someone to expand the breadth of artwork available and increase the turnover of the gallery.

Competition / Market:

The business has been very active in marketing itself. The owner frequently talks and is featured in local and regional newspapers by the art critics with a number of press releases also having been printed. They have a superb up to date website which is an excellent vehicle to promote the gallery and the increase in traffic on the site grows each week. Regular monthly mail outs are sent to the galleries database of circa 2,500 customers and advertising in the local press is taken out at the start of each new exhibition.

Support & training:

The current owner would be keen to help with a smooth changeover .

Reasons for selling:

The owner would like to retire.