Halfords Group PLC: Q3 Trading Update: Financial Year 2024
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Halfords Group PLC (HFD)
25th January 2024 Halfords Group plc Q3 Trading Update: Financial Year 2024
Continued share gains and focus on motoring services drove resilient performance in Q3, despite challenging market conditions. Cost savings ahead of expectations. Strong start to Q4 trading, FY24 profit guidance maintained.
Halfords Group plc (“Halfords” or the “Group”), the UK’s leading provider of Motoring and Cycling services and products, today announces its Q3 Trading update for the 13 weeks to 29 December 2023 (“the period”). Q3 FY24 Group revenue summary
The Group continues to deliver revenue growth in a very challenging consumer environment, highlighting the benefit of our strategic shift to needs-based, service-related revenues, focussed on motoring. Whilst our cost and efficiency programme continues to perform well and we continue to take share across all four of our core markets, the Cycling and Consumer Tyres market are performing significantly worse than anticipated and have weakened in Q3. Notwithstanding this and assuming that markets do not weaken further in Q4, we continue to expect PBT to fall within the previously communicated range of £48m to £53m. Whilst Q3 sales were below expectations, a strong start to Q4 trading, further cost action and resilient areas such as B2B performing well, mean that we are confident in the Q4 outlook. Looking to FY25, we will focus on driving profit growth through a combination of further cost savings, more profitable sales, and leveraging our Motoring Loyalty Club. We remain cautious on market recovery in the short-term and we are not currently planning for a material improvement in our key markets in FY25. Looking beyond FY25, we remain confident in the mid- and long-term future of Halfords and believe the business will be exceptionally well positioned when markets recover. Our scale, brand recognition and market leadership provide us with a platform that has significant competitive advantage. Given volumes in the Cycling and Consumer Tyres markets are below pre-pandemic levels by c. 28% and c. 14% respectively, a market recovery alongside continued delivery of the strategy gives us confidence in our ability to grow profit significantly in the future.
Graham Stapleton, Chief Executive Officer, commented: “In what remains a very challenging time for our customers, we are pleased to have delivered a resilient performance in Q3. Against the current backdrop, our continued strategic shift towards needs-based and motoring service-related revenues has never been more relevant. However, we are still seeing drivers delay essential maintenance and there is a worrying increase in potentially unsafe vehicles on the road. Recent TyreSafe data estimates that one-in-four tyres on Britain’s roads could be illegal, equating to just over 10 million tyres. We are continuing to grow share across all of our markets and are confident that the business is very well-placed to drive significant profit growth once those markets recover. Trading in Q4 has begun strongly and we remain focused on everything that we can control, with a number of initiatives underway to achieve further efficiencies within the business, as well as investing in areas where we see real opportunities for future growth.”
Market Volume and Share (fig.1)
1Sources: Market Volume data: Retail Motoring, GFK; Cycling, Bicycle Association; Consumer Tyres, GFK; Motor Servicing – MOT data from DVSA 2Halfords targets
Enquiries Investors & Analysts (Halfords) Jo Hartley, Chief Financial Officer Neil Ferris, Director of IR and ESG +44 (0) 7483 457 415
Media (Powerscourt) +44 (0) 20 7250 1446 Rob Greening halfords@powerscourt-group.com Nick Hayns Elizabeth Kittle
Notes to Editors www.halfords.com www.tredz.co.uk www.halfordscompany.com Halfords is the UK's leading provider of motoring and cycling services and products. Customers shop at 386 Halfords stores, 3 Performance Cycling stores (trading as Tredz and Giant), 645 garages (trading as Halfords Autocentres, McConechy’s, Universal, National Tyres and Lodge Tyres) and have access to 266 mobile service vans (trading as Halfords Mobile Expert, Tyres on the Drive and National) and 554 Commercial vans. Customers can also shop at halfords.com and tredz.co.uk for pick up at their local store or direct home delivery, as well as booking garage services online at halfords.com. Cautionary statement This report contains certain forward-looking statements with respect to the financial condition, results of operations, and businesses of Halfords Group plc. These statements and forecasts involve risk, uncertainty and assumptions because they relate to events and depend upon circumstances that will occur in the future. There are a number of factors that could cause actual results or developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made only as at the date of this announcement. Nothing in this announcement should be construed as a profit forecast. Except as required by law, Halfords Group plc has no obligation to update the forward-looking statements or to correct any inaccuracies therein. Dissemination of a Regulatory Announcement that contains inside information in accordance with the Market Abuse Regulation (MAR), transmitted by EQS Group. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. |
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| ISIN: | GB00B012TP20 |
| Category Code: | QRT |
| TIDM: | HFD |
| LEI Code: | 54930086FKBWWJIOBI79 |
| OAM Categories: | 2.2. Inside information |
| 2.2. Inside information | |
| Sequence No.: | 299505 |
| EQS News ID: | 1822385 |
| End of Announcement | EQS News Service |
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