Halfords boosted by strong cycling sales
Halfords has said trading in the first seven weeks of its fourth quarter has been better than expected and that it is on track to deliver a full year pre-tax profit of between £90 million and £100 million.
It has also announced that it has decided to repay in full the £10.7 million worth of furlough income it received.
In the seven weeks to 19 February, Halfords’ group like-for-like sales climbed by 6.2% after retail and autocentre sales rose by 5.1% and 13.3% respectivley.
Halfords said its autocentres business is showing signs of growing its market share due to strong demand for both its garage business and Halfords Mobile Expert vans.
Meanwhile, sales in the cycling category were particularly buoyant with a like-for-like uplift of 43%, although sales in the motoring category were down 14%.
At the beginning of the quarter, Halfords had warned that trading was being affected by regional lockdowns impacting motoring demand, as well as global container shortages and port disruption delaying stock arriving into the business.
