Halfords warns of lower profits amid slump in new bike sales

Published by

Peter Davison

Image published under Creative Commons licence

Halfords, the UK's leading retailer of motoring, cycling and leisure products, has released its half year results.

Although revenues were up 13.9 per cent and like-for-like sales grew by 8.3 per cent, shares slumped by 23 per cent after the firm warned of lower profits next year amid a slump in new bikes sales – especially in the higher price brackets.

Revenues up as motorists choose Halfords over brand franchises for servicing

The Redditch-headquartered firm said that categories such as cycling, were “challenging and below expectations” due to the tough consumer environment.

Due to the softening of demand in 'discretionary big ticket items', the business now expects underlying pre-tax profit for the year to fall within the range of £48 million to £53 million, rather than the £48 million to £58 million forecast earlier this year.

Visit Hampshire Biz News for bright, upbeat and positive business news from the county

Chief executive Graham Stapleton said: “Despite the challenging and volatile trading environment and slower than expected recovery in some of our markets, we have made a good start to the year, with substantial sales and profit growth, and increased market share across the business.

“At the same time, we supported our customers through the ongoing cost-of-living crisis by delivering great value – when they need it most.”

Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country. An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts. Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.