Published by Insider Media
HALFORDS BOSS PRAISES TEAM AFTER STRONG THIRD QUARTER
The chief executive of Halfords has praised his team after reporting a strong third quarter of its financial year.
According to a trading update for the 13 weeks to 31 December 2021, autocentres grew by 33 per cent, driven by a strong Q3 MOT peak and ongoing investment in digital platforms and building brand awareness.
Retail sales were up 5.6 per cent at the Redditch-headquartered business, with a strong performance during October and November but a drop-off in performance in the latter part of the period as the Omicron variant grew in prominence.
The group continues to target full year underlying profit before tax of £80m to £90m.
Chief executive Graham Stapleton said: "These results demonstrate the strength of our motoring services offer, and the outstanding performance from our autocentres business confirms the rationale behind our recent acquisitions.
"With the recent addition of National to the group, motoring will represent more than 70 per cent of our revenue, and we expect to carry out 7.5 million motoring servicing jobs a year. We are working hard to continually increase our capacity, capabilities and geographic reach in this area, making it easier and more convenient for customers to have a broader range of vehicles serviced than ever before at over 1,400 fixed or mobile motoring services locations.
"The Covid-19 pandemic has continued to present a number of headwinds and put significant pressure on our colleagues, who have navigated their way through a variety of challenges and issues. It is their resilience, dedication and expertise that have produced another good set of results, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of them."