- Halfords’ third-quarter sales come in 11.5% higher than last year.
- The retailer’s motoring products sales see an 8.4% decline.
- Halfords says cycling products sales were 35.4% higher in Q3.
Halfords Group plc (LON: HFD) said on Thursday that its sales jumped 11.5% in the fiscal third quarter of 2020. The company attributed the increase to the Coronavirus pandemic that accelerated a shift to cycling in the United Kingdom as people avoided public transport in recent months.
Halfords jumped more than 2% in premarket trading on Thursday and gained another 4% on market open. Including the price action, the British retailer is now exchanging hands at 296.50 pence per share versus a low of 52 pence per share in March 2020 when the pandemic wreaked havoc on the capital markets.
Are you looking for fast-news, hot-tips and market analysis?
Sign-up for the Invezz newsletter, today.
Halfords’ motor product sales take a hit due to COVID-19 crisis
Halfords’ motor product sales, however, took a hit in recent months due to the newly imposed COVID-19 restrictions from the British government. The retailer said that people usually prefer to keep indoors during the winter season that is further expected to threaten its car parts and camping and touring equipment sales in the upcoming weeks.
For the three months that concluded on 1st January, Halfords’ reported an 11.7% annualised growth in its comparable sales. Cycling products sales, it said, came in 35.4% higher during the period while its Autocentres, and garage business posted a 21.1% increase in sales.
Comparable sales attributed to Halfords’ motoring products saw an 8.4% year over year decline in the fiscal third quarter. The impact of the national lockdown that Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered again earlier in January, the Redditch-based company added, is likely to be less damaging than that of last year.
Chief Executive Graham Stapleton’s comments on Thursday
CEO Graham Stapleton commented on the financial update on Thursday and said:
“We are pleased to have delivered a strong performance under hugely challenging circumstances, including our best ever Christmas week.”
In separate news from the UK, Hays plc said that its net fees slid 19% in the fiscal second quarter due to the ongoing health crisis that pushed businesses into freezing new hiring. As per the British recruiter, it’s currently too soon to quantify the impact of the new lockdown. In the same period last year, Hays’ net fees had tanked only 7%.
Halfords performed largely upbeat in the stock market last year with an annual gain of more than 55%. At the time of writing, the retailer is valued at £590.38 million and has a price to earnings ratio of 14.68.
Source link