Halfords sales grow 18.7 per cent in two years
Halfords, the UK’s leading provider of motoring and cycling products, saw year on year sales growth of 10.5 per cent despite supply chain disruption.
In the first 20 weeks of the year, sales were driven predominantly by interest in motoring, which saw like for like growth of 52.1 per cent and picked up the slack for cycling sales which fell by 22.8 per cent. Sales at the company’s autocentres, which provide servicing and repairs for vehicles, grew by 43.8 per cent year on year.
Graham Stapleton, Chief Executive Officer, commented: “The first 20 weeks of FY22 delivered a strong trading performance against a hugely challenging backdrop.
“Our motoring business now represents 65% of our revenues and continues to go from strength to strength, driven by the increased scale of our Autocentres business, the ongoing demand for our Halfords Mobile Expert Vans, and by recent staycation trends,” Stapleton continued.
Robust sales growth came despite considerable ongoing supply chain and staffing issues. Halfords has had difficulties hiring adequate numbers of technicians and heavy goods vehicle drivers amid nation-wide shortages and high levels of Covid related absences.
Meanwhile, factory production is down, prices for raw materials are increasing and the delivery of supplies is disrupted.
Sophie Lund-Yates, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown cautioned that “Covid related absences and other recruitment challenges are slowing sales growth in Halfords’ important Autocentre business.
“The group relies on an army of technicians in its garages and mobile vans, and the dent in the workforce has held performance back,” she added, before stressing that supply obstacles make the company’s growth all the more “remarkable.”
Against a challenging business backdrop Halfords are boosting investment into the motoring side of the business and continue to target a full year profit before tax of above £75m.
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