Gross sales at Halford within the six months to 27 September had been broadly flat. The group stated it was on monitor to ship £30m of focused full 12 months financial savings to mitigate £35m of anticipated inflation.
The corporate has two areas of enterprise retail and Autocentres, the latter accounting for 40% of revenues.
Autocentres delivered like for like gross sales progress of 0.8% in opposition to an exceptionally sturdy interval within the prior 12 months.
Halford stated it had seen “strong growth” in providers, upkeep and restore (SMR) work however tyres remained difficult with price-conscious prospects buying and selling down into finances ranges.
It stated excessive ranges of technician wage inflation continued.
It stated regardless of pockets of bettering client sentiment, the short-term outlook remained unsure, notably for large ticket, discretionary purchases.
Graham Stapleton, CEO of Halfords, stated: “Whereas shoppers stay cautious of their discretionary spending compounded by uncertainty across the contents of the upcoming Autumn Price range, we’ve continued to give attention to controlling the controllables and I’m happy with our efficiency within the first half of FY25.
“Our services and B2B-led strategy has supported Halfords’ growth despite two of our core markets remaining significantly below pre-Covid levels, enabling us to absorb more than £130m of inflation since FY20 while maintaining a strong balance sheet.”
