Halfords sales rise driven by uptick in motoring and services

Revenues rose 9.2% year-on-year in the 20-week period to August 19, against strong comparables when the UK was emerging from the pandemic.

Halfords sales also grew 30.3% compared with pre-pandemic, across all segments of the business.

The retailer attributed much of its sales growth to strategic acquisitions of autocentres.

Service-related sales also now represent almost half the total group sales, up from 21.9% three years ago to 42.2%.

Halfords made market share gains in both motoring and cycling, and has grown its Motoring Loyalty Club to 500k members.

Chief executive Graham Stapleton said: “We are working extremely hard to help our customers with the cost-of-living crisis and have dropped prices across nearly 2,000 motoring essentials, ensuring that products remain accessible and affordable for all. Our Motoring Loyalty Club is also proving to be extremely popular and has already attracted over half a million members since its launch in March, with benefits including MOT discounts and a free 10-point car health check, putting almost £14m of savings directly back into members’ pockets.

“We are also determined to do everything that we can to support our fantastic employees, whose tireless work and commitment to going the extra mile for our customers is so critical to our performance. Among other initiatives, we are announcing today that we are offering free MOTs to all of our 10,000+ colleagues.

“Over 70% of our sales now come from motoring products and services, and the fact that this area of spend tends to be more needs-based rather than discretionary is leading to a very resilient Group performance, despite the wider macroeconomic uncertainty.”

• Sign up for our daily morning briefing to get the latest retail news and analysis