Halfords eyes festive sales pick-up as profits slip into reverse

Halfords has brought a fresh reality check to Britain’s embattled retail sector after its half-year profits went into reverse.

The car parts and bicycles chain said consumers were holding back on spending on discretionary items, which had dented bike sales in par- ticular. It posted a 23 per cent slide in half-year pre-tax profits to £28.2 million and said it expected the “short-term conditions for discretionary spend to remain challenging”.

On an underlying basis, pre-tax profits fell 17.1 per cent to £30.5m in the six months to 28 September.

The group said it remained on course for “broadly” flat full-year profits as it expects a pick-up in earnings over the finalsixmonths.butitstressed this was dependent on trading over the crucial festive period and assuming average winter weather.

Graham Stapleton, the firm’s recently appointed chief executive, said: “Despite the challenging UK consumer environment, we delivered a robust sales and cash-flow performance in the first half, with costs and profit broadly in line with our expectations.”

Like-for-like retail sales rose 2.3 per cent, while the group’s autocentres chain saw growth of 3.3 per cent. Bike sales crept up 1 per cent in the half-year as the heatwave offset a difficult start to the year.

Analysts at brokerage Peel Hunt noted: “A solid second half is required to get Halfords to its targets.” 0 Firm remains on track for ‘broadly’ flat full-year profits