Rough Trade is reportedly “assessing opportunities” to build more stores following a huge rise in vinyl and CD sales.
Managing director Lawrence Montgomery told Music Week in a new interview that the chain – which currently has six shops in the UK and one in the US – was looking to open more stores, particularly in London.
“We always keep an eye on opportunities in the UK but we are respectful to the great indie stores around the country, so we are very specific when looking at opportunities,” Montgomery said. He also added that the chain were “assessing a couple opportunities in London, where we have a strong team and operational set-up.”
It follows a huge resurgence in the vinyl industry, in which the number of independent vinyl stores hit a 10-year high in March this year and vinyl outsold CD for the first time in 35 years in 2023.
“We are selling more than double the number of records and CDs so far in 2024 than we did five years ago,” Montgomery told Music Week. “As long as labels and artists continue to value the role independent record shops like ourselves offer, we believe this growth can continue.”
Recently, Rough Trade opened their largest UK store in Liverpool last January, with Montgomery calling the initial reaction towards the store “extremely positive”. “Every time we open a shop, we take on the 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 get the quantity and quality of shows in the live venue,” Montgomery added of the Liverpool location. “We took the decision to invest more heavily into the live venue – it is 300-capacity, high-quality production and looks great. For our model to work, having this dual purpose – retail and venue – is important and Liverpool is the most ambitious we’ve done in terms of the capacity and quality of fit out.”
Recently, Rough Trade came under fire for an “ill-advised” vinyl selling scheme.
In August, the record store announced the scheme would allow people to swap “pre-loved records for cash with FlipVinyl”, a company the iconic record shop describes on its website as the “fastest-growing second-hand vinyl buyers in Germany who have revolutionised the way to sell vinyl online”.
However, people were quick to spot that the company were offering incredibly low prices for rare records, with one user offered a mere £9 for their David Bowie ‘Five Years’ vinyl box set.
In response, Rough Trade released a statement apologising for the scheme, saying they were “very sorry for this mistake”.
“It’s clear based on feedback from a number of customers that we made wrong assumptions and that people viewed this service as inappropriate and saw us as profiteering.”
“This was not our intention, however we understand and appreciate these criticisms and take full responsibility,” the statement continued. “As a result, we are going to suspend the service to give us time to reassess.”