Trade in new financial year continued to be soft (Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - London, 27 Jun - Halfords noted that trading since the start of new financial year "has continued to be soft, impacted by low consumer confidence around big ticket, discretionary purchases, and poor spring weather, which has reduced store footfall and affected sales of both cycling and staycation products." While its expect to gain market share in the year ahead, it now anticipates market volumes to decline in the full year in cycling and consumer tyres, and to remain broadly flat in motoring servicing and retail motoring products.

"Inflation remains a material headwind, particularly driven by the 10% increase in the national minimum wage. More recently we have seen very significant increases in sea freight rates, with spot rates more than doubling since the start of our financial year. Whilst we continue to successfully secure rates well below market spot rates, we now forecast freight costs to be 4-7 million pounds higher than we anticipated at the start of the year," it added.

"We do not expect these headwinds to persist in the long term. Consumer price inflation is easing and our core markets are expected to improve in the mid-term. We remain confident that the financial targets announced at the April 2023 CMD are achievable assuming markets ultimately recover as forecast, albeit this will take longer than we envisaged last year," Halfords commented.

AAA-Web

(RADIOCOR) 28-06-24 08:00:04 (0077) 5 NNNN