OLYMPIC LIFT FOR HALFORDS

Halfords was founded in 1902 when retailer Frederick Rushbrooke moved his cycle shop from Brimingham to Halford Street in Leicester In 1965, Margaret Thatcher’s husband Denis became a director of Halfords when it was taken over by Burmah Oil Today it is estimated that nine in 10 of UK homes are within 20 minutes of a Halfords Halfords has 9,000 staff, sells 10,000 product lines in store and more than 30,000 online It repairs a bike puncture once every minute and fits a battery every two minutes It also sells enough car mats to cover the island of Jersey

BIKE sales at Halfords rocketed on the back of Britain’s success at the Olympics, cut price promotions and decent summer weather.

The retail chain said cycle ranges from Olympians Sir Bradley Wiggins and Laura Trott( pictured above with fiance Jason Kenny) have proved popular since being launched in early July. All three won gold medals at the Rio Olympics which has sparked renewed interest in cycling back home.

Britain bagged 11 medals in track cycling events in Rio, six of them gold.

Halfords shares rose in early trading yesterday after the firm, which makes 70pc of revenues selling car parts, bounced back from poor cycling sales last year. Shares closed flat at 372p.

It posted a 1.9pc increase in bike revenues over the past 20 weeks, which included a 12.5pc rise over the peak summer period.

The group, which also owns the Autocentre car repair chain, said total retail revenue rose 10.3pc over the past seven weeks, up from 1.5pc in the first quarter.

Chief executive Jill McDonald said: ‘There has been good summer sales of travel products and strong cycling growth. Motoring sales were robust, driven by car and motorcycle parts.’