Halfords sales hit by soggy summer and Brexit jitters

Bikes-to-car parts retailer Halfords today admitted soggy summer weather and the weight of Brexit had slammed sales into reverse gear.

Chief executive Graham Stapleton said trading had held up in less discretionary areas like batteries, MOTs and car services but more expensive products like adult bikes and tool boxes were less popular.

Of last night’s political ructions, he said: “These are the stories that our customers are reading every day and we can see in the numbers that this is translating to people delaying spending on big ticket items.”

The retailer posted a 3.2% fall in same-store sales for the 20 weeks to August 16 and said profits would come in at between £50 million and £55 million, down slightly on City forecasts of around £59 million. The shares, which have almost halved over the last year, tumbled another 3% to 166p.

Stapleton said of his strategy to ramp up its services arm: “we are moving as fast as we can”.

Investec analyst Kate Calvert called the update “disappointing”.