Strong rise in bike sales for Halfords

Bike sales are up at Halfords and this has helped the company to report a rise in its profits.

The company's latest financial results were released today (November 7th) and they show that it made £44.6 million for the six months to September 27th.

This was more than five per cent up on the previous six-month period and the firm was also able to reveal that its total sales were up 7.7 per cent to £490.6 million.

Bike sales were a major driver of growth for the company for the half-year, with the business seeing this part of the company expand by 14.2 per cent.

Matt Davies, chief executive at Halfords, said: "These are early days in our three-year transformation plan but it is encouraging to see the retail business deliver a strong first-half performance."

He added that the company had made the most of the summer weather with a range of "compelling" offers for its range of bikes.

Cycling is becoming increasingly popular in the UK, perhaps fuelled by the Olympic successes of athletes such as Jason Kenny, Laura Trott and Chris Hoy at London 2012.

The share price of Halfords was 13.62 per cent up for the day at 14:15 GMT.

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