Record Plant, Farsley: Leeds' newest record store on thriving at Sunnybank Mills and the vinyl revival
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Initially launched in a modest unit at Sunnybank Mills in October 2023, the store quickly outgrew its space behind The Old Woollen, prompting a move to a larger venue within the same development by autumn 2024.
John-Paul told the Yorkshire Evening Post: "It was busy pretty much straight away and has continued to be. So we quickly realised we needed to expand or have bigger premises to stock more items. We moved this summer and opened here at the end of September, in under a year. It's been quite a big jump up."
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With years of experience in the record store industry, opening his own shop felt like a natural progression for John-Paul. However, he initially had reservations about competing in Leeds’ well-established music scene.
He said: “There are so many great record shops in Leeds, so I wondered how we’d fit in. But Leeds is such a big city—there’s room for everyone.”
Sunnybank Mills is home to a large variety of independent businesses, event spaces and art galleries, and proved the ideal location for Record Plant.
John-Paul explained: "You're surrounded by creativity. There are lots of artists who are based here, and it's quite an up-and-coming area and continues to be so.
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Hide Ad"And I think that's been very good for us. It's a good place for people to come on a weekend [for people who] don't live here as well."
Record Plant offers a diverse range of music, from the latest Taylor Swift releases to £100+ limited-edition box sets by The Smiths and Stone Roses. It also stocks music memorabilia, books, merchandise, and more. Among current bestsellers is records by MF Doom, the late British-American rapper whose music has seen a resurgence in popularity since his passing in Leeds in 2020.


John-Paul thinks that one reason records have become so popular in the 21st century is the way people consume music in the age of social media: "[People] might hear something on a reel on Instagram or TikTok, and then buy the record."
Leeds is home to renowned record stores that have built national reputations over decades. But for a new record store like Record Plant to open with such success that it had to move to a larger premise in under a year is no small feat.
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Hide AdJohn-Paul believes their success lies in building strong connections with customers: "We pride ourselves on, trying to get to know our customers and get things in that they want. And if we don't have what they want, we will do our best to get it. It's just a nice place to come and browse.
"We've got a lot of things on display, and we're next to an art gallery. It's quite a visual shop, so people can come in and look at things. And even if they hadn't bought anything, they might go: 'Well, actually, I enjoyed going in there because I'd seen that'.
"And we don't just sell records. We've got other kinds of merch and pop culture kind of bits and pieces which sell quite healthily."
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John-Paul hopes the Record Plant's rapid growth over the past year continues. He said: "I mean, I think we'll continue growing. We'd like to look at expansion, maybe looking at different, different shops and things.
"Once you've got one business, it's almost like a springboard, because you've taken that risk - taking the plunge to do something.
"The beauty of it is, you never know really until you're halfway through doing the next thing."
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