12th Nov 2015 07:54
LONDON (Alliance News) - Halfords Group PLC on Thursday reported a fall in profit in the first half of its financial year and said that profit in its next financial year will be broadly unchanged on the current year, although it expects to achieve growth thereafter.
The car parts and bicycle retailer said pretax profit in the 26 weeks ended October 2 fell 5.9% to GBP46.4 million from GBP49.4 million in the same period the year before, even though revenue rose 1.8% to GBP533.5 million from GBP524.1 million.
Halfords said that the motoring side of the business performed well in the period with in-store service sales growing strongly, but that a disappointing cycling performance in the second quarter contributed to a decline in overall profitability.
"Looking forward, there are plenty of reasons for us to remain confident that the cycling market will continue to grow over the long term," Chief Executive Jill McDonald said in a statement.
Halfords will pay an interim dividend of 5.66 pence per share, a 2.9% increase on the 5.5p paid the prior year.
"Whilst the job to modernise Halfords has made great progress it is not yet complete and we will continue to invest to sustain long-term growth. We expect profit in financial 2017 to be broadly unchanged on financial 2016, with growth thereafter. However, our strong cashflow and balance sheet will enable us to continue to grow the dividend whilst at the same time investing to modernise the business," McDonald said.
By Karolina Kaminska; [email protected] @KarolinaAllNews
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