Halfords expecting return to profit growth

Halfords posted a decline in full-year profit on Wednesday but said it expects a return to profit growth.

Full-year pre-tax profit fell to £51.5m from £89.8m a year earlier, coming in within the company’s guided range. Revenue rose 15.3% to £1.6bn.

Halfords said it expects year-on-year profit growth in FY24 and is "comfortable" with current analyst consensus expectations of £53.3m for underlying pre-tax profit.

Chief executive Graham Stapleton said: "In a very challenging year, our focus has been on supporting both customers and colleagues through the cost-of-living crisis. Investment in competitive pricing and the value for money offered by our Motoring Loyalty Club, has enabled us to help more people with their motoring needs. This has led to an outstanding sales performance and significant market share gains.

"Over the year we have also made great progress against our strategy, building a bigger needs-based services business, with over three quarters of our revenue now coming from motoring, and almost half from service-related sales. These results have been achieved despite significant inflation and other macroeconomic headwinds and are therefore a clear illustration of the ever-increasing resilience of our business."

Halfords said trading since the start of the new financial year has been strong, with growth in the loyalty club, now reaching over 2m members.

At 0940 BST, the shares were up 5.4% at 202p.