Rough Trade is “investigating options” to build new stores

Rough Trade is reportedly exploring the possibility of opening more stores following the huge increase in vinyl and CD sales.

Managing Director Lawrence Montgomery said Music Week in a new interview that the chain – which currently has six stores in the UK and one in the US – is looking to open more stores, particularly in London.

“We’re always looking for opportunities in the UK, but we also have respect for the great indie stores around the country, so we’re very rigorous in looking at opportunities,” Montgomery said. He added that the chain is “looking at a few opportunities in London, where we have a strong team and a good operational setup.”

It follows a huge revival in the vinyl industry, which saw the number of independent vinyl stores hit a ten-year high in March this year and more vinyl sold than CDs in 2023 for the first time in 35 years.

“We are selling more than twice as many records and CDs in 2024 as we did five years ago,” said Montgomery Music Week“As long as labels and artists continue to value the role of independent record stores like us, we believe this growth can continue.”

In January last year, Rough Trade opened its largest UK store in Liverpool. Montgomery described the initial response to the store as “extremely positive”. “Every time we open a store, we take on a responsibility to serve the local community and Liverpool has a wonderful history and present when it comes to music culture.”

“The next step for us is to increase the quantity and quality of shows in the live venue,” Montgomery added of the Liverpool site. “We’ve decided to invest more heavily in the live venue – it seats 300 people, has high quality production and looks great. For our model to work, that dual purpose – retail and venue – is important and Liverpool is the most ambitious we’ve achieved yet in terms of capacity and quality of facility.”

Rough Trade recently came under criticism for an “ill-considered” vinyl sales system.

In August, the record store announced that the program would allow people to trade in “used records for cash at FlipVinyl.” The iconic record store’s website states that the company is “the fastest-growing buyer of used records in Germany, revolutionizing the way records are sold online.”

However, people quickly noticed that the company was offering incredibly low prices for rare records, with one user bidding just £9 for his David Bowie ‘Five Years’ vinyl box set, for example.

Rough Trade subsequently apologized for the injustice in a statement and said that the company was “very sorry for this mistake.”

“It is clear from the feedback we have received from numerous customers that we were making false assumptions and that people found this service inadequate and viewed us as usurers.”

“This was not our intention, but we understand and appreciate this criticism and take full responsibility,” the statement continued. “For this reason, we will be suspending the service to give ourselves time to reassess.”