(Alliance News) - Halfords Group PLC on Thursday hailed an "exceptional" performance from its Autocentres but acknowledged a decline in overall sales for the quarter as the Omicron variant of the coronavirus put the breaks on festive trading.
The retailer, best known for selling bikes and cycling equipment, said for the third quarter ended December 31 Retail Cycling was down 21% on a year before and down 2.1% from the pre-pandemic 2020 period.
However Retail Motoring revenue climbed 11% year-on-year. The improvement did not stop overall revenue falling 2.2% annually. Autocentres sales surged, growing 33% on a like-for-like basis, driven by a strong third quarter MOT peak.
Redditch, England-based Halfords said it continues to target full year underlying profit before tax of GBP80 million to GBP90 million.
For the 2021 financial year, underlying pretax profit was GBP96.3 million.
Chief Executive Graham Stapleton commented: "These results demonstrate the strength of our Motoring Services offer, and the outstanding performance from our Autocentres business confirms the rationale behind our recent acquisitions.
"The Covid-19 pandemic has continued to present a number of headwinds and put significant pressure on our colleagues, who have navigated their way through a variety of challenges and issues. It is their resilience, dedication, and expertise that have produced another good set of results."
Shares were down 0.4% at 360.40 pence each on Thursday morning in London.
By Will Paige; willpaige@alliancenews.com
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Halfords (HFD)