The retail big Halfords has seen its biking gross sales develop in latest weeks which might be seen as an indication within the wider biking trade that the sector is because of flip a optimistic nook.
The retailer’s efficiency is usually considered as a bellwether marker for the broader UK biking trade, with its gross sales typically perceived as a marker for the general biking trade panorama in Britain. A lot of the discourse across the UK trade has centred on plummeting gross sales, points with extra inventory and extra lately, however Halfords now say that their gross sales have climbed up.
This marks a change from the outlook reported in November final 12 months by the retail chain. The model reported a 25% year-on-year fall in earnings as a consequence of what the retailer described as a “decline in biking” on the time.
Whereas minimal figures had been launched by the retailer this week, Halfords reported that its gross sales had been up within the monetary 12 months 2024-2025 which covers the 52 weeks main as much as 28 March. An replace from the corporate revealed on its web site states that gross sales are up by 1.7%. Regardless of the optimistic indicators, the retailer did, nonetheless, urge that warning was nonetheless wanted because of the retail shopper outlook remaining “unsure”.
In the meantime the retailer introduced that longstanding CEO Graham Stapleton was leaving Halfords and would get replaced by new CEO, Henry Birch. In a press release, Stapleton famous that outcomes had been higher than anticipated after a difficult interval.
He stated: “It is a efficiency to be happy with, mitigating greater than £30m of inflation in what continued to be a really difficult buying and selling atmosphere in FY25. I need to thank each single Halfords colleague for his or her onerous work in attaining a considerably stronger outcome than we anticipated at first of the monetary 12 months.”
Halfords additionally famous that whereas they don’t have any export or import enterprise in america, the group could be monitoring the scenario surrounding President Donald Trump’s lately launched tariffs of which, the model stated, the impression “stays to be seen”. Halfords anticipate to be not directly impacted by the tariffs with freight prices, product charges and delivery occasions doubtlessly changing into affected by the scenario.
