A refresh of its cycling range has helped push full-year turnover closer to the £1 billion mark for retailer Halfords.
The Worcestershire-based chain, known for its bikes and leisure and car accessories, posted sales of £940 million (2013: £871 million) in the year to March 28, 2014. Pre-tax profit rose to £72.6 million (2013: £71 million).
The Redditch-based firm said today its cycling operation had seen like-for-like growth of just under 20 per cent while online sales had climbed by 17.7 per cent.
It said it had also carried out capital expenditure of £30.4 million, an increase of 61.7 per cent, to support the first year of its 'Getting Into Gear' strategy aimed at improving the retail side of the business.
Chief executive Matt Davies said today: "This was a year of significant retail sales growth and the start of a strategic investment programme designed to deliver sustainable profit growth over the medium term.
"Our actions resulted in a particularly strong performance in every element of our cycling category, illustrating our leading and growing role in the market.
"Car maintenance sales were also encouraging, especially against the backdrop of a mild winter. Within Autocentres, new leadership is now in place as we look to grow profitability in that business.
"In the first year of our Getting Into Gear strategy, our targets presented a year ago have been achieved.
"We are getting better prepared to delight our customers both in store and online and we're making good progress with our refreshed stores, our infrastructure and the product range."
