Halfords posts strong full year profit rise
Halfords, the car part and cycle retailer, has posted an 11.3% rise in full year profit as it reaped the rewards of its turnaround strategy.
In the 52 weeks to 27 March, pre-tax profit after non-recurring items reached £80.8 million while group revenue climbed by 6.9% to exceed £1 billion a year ahead of plan.
With like-for-like sales across the group climbing by 6.8%, retail like-for-like sales grew by 7% boosted by strong cycling sales.
Meanwhile, like-for-like sales at the group’s autocentres rose by 5.3%.
Dennis Millard, Halfords chairman, said: “This was another year of strong revenue growth, this time against tough comparatives, and leading to a pleasing improvement in profitability. We are delighted to have exceeded £1bn of group revenue, a year ahead of plan, and are building a sustainable platform for future growth.”
By the end of the year, Halfords had refreshed a total of 72 stores and plans to refresh a cumulative total of around 150 by the end of the current financial year. It also launched four Cycle Republic shops and plans to open a further 11 by April 2016.
Online retail revenues grew by 14.3% and represented 12.2% of total retail sales.
Millard added: “There still remains much to do in both retail and autocentres and FY16 will be a particularly busy year of activity and investment as we continue to focus on driving the top-line and rolling out our Getting into Gear strategy. I would like to warmly welcome Jill McDonald, our new chief executive who started a few weeks ago, and who joins at an exciting time.”
