Halfords sales jump after warm weather boosts summer trading

Halfords has revealed a surge in sales for the past half-year after a boost from warm summer weather.The retail firm reported stronger trading across both its motoring and cycling businesses.Nevertheless, shares in the company slumped after it indicated that investment plans will weigh on profitability in the second half of the financial year.The Redditch-based business, which runs 367 Halfords stores, two performance cycling stores and 497 consumer garages, said it saw positive momentum in the six months to October 2.Halfords runs autocentres alongside its retail stores (Matt Alexander Media Assignments/PA)PA ArchiveIt said group like-for-like increased 7.1% for the half-year, compared with the same period a year earlier.This included 7.7% growth across its retail operations, with a 7.3% increase in its motoring arm and an 8.3% rise in cycling sales.Meanwhile, the group’s autocentres business reported a 6.1% sales increase.Halfords said its first-half growth was supported by the firm’s strategy and positive demand for “seasonal categories” during the summer.In August, Halfords improved its profit outlook on the back of strong sales for products such as bikes, camping and air conditioning services during the unusually warm weather.The company said it is still on track to deliver an underlying pre-tax profit of between £55 million and £65 million for the current financial year.Henry Birch, chief executive of the business, said: “The business continued to perform positively through the first half as we benefited from good execution against our strategic priorities and strong sales of seasonal categories through the warm summer weather.“We move into the second half with confidence and look forward to sharing more detail on our progress at our interim results announcement later next month.”Read MoreShares in Halfords were 8.3% lower on Wednesday morning.