Halfords is set to pay back its furlough payments in full as trading so far this year has been “stronger than initially anticipated across the business”.
The cycling specialist will pay back £10.7m of furlough support and said it now expects its full-year pre-tax profit to be in the range of £90m to £100m after this repayment.
The retailer said its sales for the first seven weeks of its fourth quarter to February 19, 2021, have been up across all divisions of its business, with uplifts of 5.1% and 13.3% registered across retail and autocentres respectively.
Cycling was the key driver of Halfords’ retail sales increase, with sales up 43% year on year in like-for-like terms.
Across the group, like-for-like sales have increased by 6.2% year on year, ahead of prior expectations that like-for-likes sales would decline due to disruption at the ports and regional lockdowns tempering motoring demand.
Although motoring sales have fallen 14% on a like-for-like basis during the period, this is ahead of expectations and demonstrates “signs of growing market share” when taking into account an estimated 40% decline in car journeys compared with pre-pandemic levels.
The retailer will update the market with its preliminary results on June 17.
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