Friday 05 June 2015 3:25 am

Halfords share price rises as revenue exceeds £1bn

The figures

Halfords recorded revenue in excess of £1bn in the year to the end of March thanks to strong sales in both its car and cycle businesses, triggering a two per cent rise in its share price in early trading.

The retailer posted an 11.4 per cent rise in full-year profit to £84.1m on an 6.8 per cent rise in revenue to £1.004bn.

Like-for-like sales growth at its retail stores grew seven per cent to £875.1m, while sales at its autocentres grew 5.3 per cent to £150.3m. Cycling was again the big winner for the company, with an 11.4 per cent rise in sales during the year while the group continued to grow its online sector with a 14.3 per cent growth sending sales over £100m.

Shares in the retailer, which employs around 11,000 people, are trading at around 493p per share – a two per cent rise on yesterday's close of 484.5p.

Why it's interesting

Investors weren't happy when Halfords' chief executive Matt Davies moved to Tesco, yet since the initial panic sent shares plummeting 8.5 per cent in one day, the company's stock has impressively recovered – rising 16.5 per cent.

New boss Jill McDonald – who started a few weeks ago – has joined at what the company described as an "exciting time", thanks to the strong revenue growth across all platforms and will likely continue what is proving to be a successful strategy.

What Halfords said

Chairman Dennis Millard said:

At the very core of our strategy is customer service and investment in our colleagues, our proposition and our infrastructure…

…There still remains much to do in both retail and autocentres and full year 16 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.