Halfords pledged to step up its promotional activity after reporting a sharper drop in like-for-like sales over the last quarter.

The Redditch-based group highlighted a tough market for sales of sat-navs and a disappointing performance in its cycles department as it posted a 6.3 per cent decline in like-for-like sales at its retail estate in the quarter to October 1.

This compared with a 4.5 per cent drop in the previous three months, although Halfords said it still expected to grow half-year profits by around 12 per cent to between £67 million and £69 million.

It remains cautious about the trading environment and said it would re-invest recent margin gains into increasing its promotional stance.

One area of focus is likely to be in cycles after a “relatively disappointing” one per cent drop in like-for-like sales over the quarter.

It blamed the performance on delays in the relaunch of new cycle ranges and on increased levels of competition as it failed to take full advantage of a UK market that “remains attractive and continues to grow”.

“We are now taking steps to re-align our range and pricing of cycles to more accurately reflect current consumer needs and tastes,” the company added.

Halfords described the in-car technology market as very challenging and said its sales of sat-navs declined 16 per cent in the first half on a like-for-like basis.

It reported low single digit like-for-like sales growth in its most profitable category of car maintenance, while its camping performance was described as encouraging after a mid-single digit increase.

Halfords shares fell 7 per cent today after the update came in short of market expectations. Kate Calvert, an analyst at Seymour Pierce stockbrokers, cut her forecast for full-year profits by three per cent to £131 million and said the statement raised a question mark over whether the company can meet City hopes.