Bike sales are racing downhill at Halfords Illustrated Harry Potter books fly off the shelves

SPECIAL editions of the bestselling Harry Potter books and weight-loss cookery guides helped Bloomsbury post bumper sales.

The British publisher said revenues rose more than 13pc to £161.5m in the year to the end of February. Profits jumped 9.8pc to £13.2m.

Chief executive Nigel Newton said illustrated versions of the Harry Potter series ( pictured) celebrating the 20th anniversary of the first book’s publication, flew off the shelves. And chef Tom Kerridge’s Lose Weight For Good, based on a BBC TV series, broke the record for the most sales in a week in January – 70,000 copies.

Shares yesterday rose 7.5pc, or 15.5p, to 222.5p. HALFORDS shares sped downhill as a cycling boom lost momentum.

Profits fell 6pc over the past year to £67.1m, down from £71.4m the previous year.

Halfords said sales of cycling products rose 2.9pc, below the 5pc rise it reported last year. The drop was blamed on a poor fourth quarter, when sales slumped 4.1pc.

Bosses blamed that on bad weather during the three months to March 3, which included the ‘Beast from the East’ in late February.

They said the market was still growing but cautioned that it had been a ‘challenging’ 12 months, adding that its prices were not expected to rise again this year. Graham Stapleton, chief executive, said: ‘We are pleased with the year’s performance in a challenging retail environment, with profits in line with expectations.’

Cycling makes up about 40pc of Halfords’ sales, but because it buys much of its stock from the US it has been hit by £25m in extra costs from the weakening of the pound against the dollar.

Sales rose overall 3.7pc to £ 1.1bn last year. Motoring sales rose 1.9pc.

Halfords announced the appointment of ex-British Airways boss Keith Williams as chairman, to replace Dennis Millard, who is retiring.