* Cycling division sales soar 59.1% in 20 weeks to Aug. 21
* Motoring division sales down 28.6%
* Forecasts first half profit of 35-40 mln stg
* Cautions second half profit could be much lower than first
(Adds details, shares)
LONDON, Sept 8 (Reuters) - British retailer Halfords
forecast on Tuesday a sharp rise in its first half profit as it
benefited from a cycling boom during the coronavirus pandemic,
but warned that growth would be slower in the next six months.
The company said sales of bicycles and related products
surged 59.1% in the 20 weeks to Aug. 21, from a year earlier,
thanks to the rising popularity of cycling as Britons fretted
about travelling on public transport during the pandemic and
increasingly saw it as a health and leisure activity.
Government voucher schemes have also driven growth.
Halfords, which trades from 447 stores, said it saw strong
growth across all cycling product categories, with like-for-like
sales up 76% year-on-year in its performance cycling business,
Tredz. Sales of electric bikes and scooters jumped 230%.
The company forecast underlying pretax profit of 35-40
million pounds ($46-53 million) for its first half to the end of
September - assuming expected demand levels in September and
stability in the relative value of the U.S. dollar.
That would be up from 25.9 million pounds a year earlier.
Halfords said it has seen a rebound in sales at its motoring
division in the past few weeks as car journeys picked up.
However, it cautioned that "significant uncertainty" remained
for the second half of its 2020-21 year.
"Given the natural fall-off in the relative strength of
cycling and staycation products during winter months, alongside
a difficult economic outlook, H2 FY21 profit before tax could be
significantly lower than H1 FY21," it said.
Shares in Halfords, having risen 5.6% on Monday, were down
3.2% at 0829 GMT. They are up 4.4% this year.
Group like-for-like sales rose 5% in the 20-week period,
with the strong performance in cycling partially offset by a
28.6% fall in motoring products sales, as car journeys were
limited by the crisis.
The motoring division returned to growth in the final three
weeks of the period, helped by strong sales of
"staycation"-related products, such as roof bars and boxes.
The group's overall online sales rose 160% in the first
half.
Separately on Tuesday industry surveys showed British
consumers increased their spending in August as they went on
"staycation" holidays, bought equipment for working from home
and went back to shops to buy clothes.
($1 = 0.7607 pounds)
(Reporting by James Davey, editing by David Evans and Susan
Fenton)