Halfords remains a strong ‘buy’ for some City brokers but other analysts see profit risk
The retailer flagged low margins in the cycling division, which has seen high sales during the crisis
Company
LON:HFD
Halfords Group PLC is engaged in the retailing of auto, leisure and cycling products. The principal activity of the Company is that of a holding company. During the fiscal year ended March 28, 2008, the Company operated from 430 stores in the United Kingdom via overseas branches, 17 stores in the Republic of Ireland and three in the Czech Republic. Its product portfolio consists of three categories: car maintenance (including car parts, servicing consumables), car enhancement (including in-car entertainment systems, cleaning products, accessories, interior and exterior car styling products) and leisure (including cycles and cycle accessories and roof boxes, cycle carriers, child car seats and outdoor leisure equipment).
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The retailer flagged low margins in the cycling division, which has seen high sales during the crisis
The retailer said the second half of the year will see better profits and modelled three scenarios ranging from a £10mln loss to a £20mln profit
The auto and cycling retailer said it expected its profits for the year ended 3 April will be "at the upper end" of its guided range of £50-55mln
As a bike and motoring specialist, Halfords is deemed an essential supplier by the government and can keep its stores open under current restrictions.
In the 14 weeks to 3 January, group and like-for-like sales rose 4.6% and 1.3% respectively
The retailer is fast-tracking its autocentres business, which grew its revenues by 2.1% to £82.7mln in its first-half
Chief executive Graham Stapleton said the company believes the economic and political uncertainty will continue to impact big-ticket discretionary spend in the second half.
Halfords posted a 17.9% drop in underlying pre-tax profit for 2019 as mild winter weather and subdued consumer confidence hit motoring sales
Investments and investor services
The UK's premier shares index closed up around ten points at 7,320
Archive
The Day Ahead will bring trading updates from the likes of stores groups Halfords, Topps Tiles, and WH Smith
The FTSE 250 sportswear retailer that total sales growth for the 48 weeks to 5 January was up 15% while total like-for-like growth was more than 5%
Below we provide a cut-out-and-keep guide to the major quoted retailers and how the quoted retailers performed
Archive
The day includes trading updates from retailers Moss Bros and AO World, plus UK gross domestic product data and US inflation figures
Investments and investor services
A look at the day's major movers, including Midatech, Diurnal, Brighton Pier and Halfords
There were some bright spots in the statement. The Autocentres business continues to grow like-for-like sales and online sales, which represent 20% of total sales, grew 7.5%
Archive
The Footsie has been dipping below and above the 6,800 mark throughout the day
"Despite the challenging UK consumer environment, we delivered a robust sales and cash flow performance in the first half, with costs and profit broadly in line with our expectations,” said chief executive Graham Stapleton
Investments and investor services
The focus is now on the Federal Reserve meeting later. The interest rate announcement is set for 7.00pm, UK time
The FTSE 250-listed group also confirmed that the consideration paid for the Evans Cycles business was £8mln, of which around £2mln was paid to fund Evans Cycles' October payroll
Citing sources, Sky News’ website said Halfords - which offered to buy Evans last month - had ended talks with the private equity-owned firm's advisers