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Halfords has seen its pre-tax profits fall by 18.3% to £36.1m in the year ended 29 March.
The retailer attributed this to market volumes in cycling and consumer tyres falling year-on-year, worse than industry expectations. These markets remain depressed compared to the pre-Covid period, with bike volumes down 30% and tyres 14%.
However, the company reported a revenue growth of 7.9% to £1.6bn and a 5% growth in like-for-like sales. Autocentres group revenue was up 17.6% and 10.7%, whilst underlying EBIT from total operations was £13.8m, £10.7m higher than FY23.
In the retail segment, retail motoring saw a LFL revenue growth of 4.9%, significantly better than market volume growth of 0.9%. Meanwhile LFL in the cycling segment declined by 2.8% compared with FY23.
Trading since the start of FY25 has continued to be soft, impacted by low consumer confidence around big ticket, discretionary purchases, and poor spring weather, which has reduced store footfall and affected sales of both cycling and staycation products.
As a result, the retailer expects market volumes to fall in FY25 in cycling and consumer tyres, and to remain broadly flat in motoring servicing and retail motoring products.
Graham Stapleton, chief executive officer of Halfords, said: “This has been a year of strong strategic and operational progress for Halfords, and we are pleased to have delivered a resilient financial performance against challenging core markets. Our Autocentres business was the star performer yet again. This was delivered despite a challenging tyre market, where drivers continue to delay the replacement of unsafe tyres.
“We are determined to improve tyre safety in the UK, and we are equally committed to supporting our customers through the cost-of-living crisis, by delivering great value when they need it most. None of this would be possible without the hard work and commitment of our highly skilled colleagues and I am very grateful for their ongoing support.”
Stapleton added: “While the short-term outlook remains challenging, we continue to build a unique, digitally-enabled, omni-channel business, which is well positioned for profitable growth”.
