Halfords backs FY profit expectations after strong first half

(Sharecast News) - Halfords backed its full-year profit expectations on Wednesday as the provider of motoring and cycling products and services hailed "strong" trading in the first half. In the 26 weeks to 2 October, group like-for-like sales rose 7.1%, with sales in the retail segment up 7.7%, while motoring and cycling saw increases of 7.3% and 8.3%, respectively. LFL sales at Autocentres grew 6.1%.

Halfords said that as communicated in the August trading statement, its performance was underpinned by momentum across the business as it delivered against its strategic priorities, alongside strong demand for seasonal categories through the summer months.

For FY27, it continues to expect underlying pre-tax profit of between £55m and £65m. "The strong H1 performance combined with accelerated investments in marketing and technology in H2 will result in underlying profit before tax being weighted towards H1," it said.

Halfords is due to release its HY27 interim results on 26 November.

Chief executive Henry Birch 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."

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