Halfords cycling sales grow in boost for bike industry

Halfords reported its cycling sales "turned positive" in the most recent financial year, improving its cycling performance to grow sales, a reason for optimism after a challenging few years for the bike industry.

As with Shimano for the global cycling market, Halfords can be viewed as a bellwether for the UK cycling market, its fortunes a marker for the strength or weakness of the overall industry's position. Just last June the business warned the cycling market is "significantly worse than expected" and the past few years have been regularly punctuated by stories about Halfords' falling bike sales and worsening financial performance.

However, in a sign that things might be improving for the bike industry, or at least not getting worse, Britain's largest cycling retailer announced its sales were up in the financial year 2024-25, which covers the 52 weeks leading to 28 March 2025.

> "The premium sector is the fastest-growing part of the cycling market": Halfords to double the amount of bikes in its range priced over £1,000

A document uploaded to Halfords' website notes the business experienced a particularly "strong finish" to the year and that cycling sales are up 1.7 per cent.

For Halfords as a whole — factoring in its retail sales, autocentres, bike servicing and any other parts of the business — sales were up 2.3 per cent on the year before.

The underlying group profit before tax is expected to be "around the upper end" of the £32m to £37m range previously guided.

Retail accounts for 60 per cent of the overall business and that includes cycling and motoring sales, an area that was up 1.7 per cent as cycle sales were "improving".

Looking ahead, Halfords suggested minimum wage and National Insurance changes from the Autumn Budget would add £23m to its labour costs this financial year, with increased costs also expected to be passed through in contracts for managed services. 

"We have undertaken a comprehensive review of the business to identify potential mitigations for the additional cost expected from FY26, which has generated opportunities in pricing strategy, further buying and cost efficiencies, proactive portfolio management and acceleration of strategic initiatives," the statement explained. "We expect to be able to mitigate the entirety of the direct inflationary impact of the Autumn Budget in FY26."

Despite the positivity of the sales boost, Halfords admitted that retail sales "remain volatile" and the consumer outlook is "uncertain".

What about the impact of Trump's tariffs?

While Halfords does not export or import goods to or from the United States and has "no direct exposure" to Donald Trump's newly introduced tariffs, it did accept that the indirect impact on the business's supply chain, including on product costs, freight rates and shipping times "remains to be seen", as does the impact on consumer spending.

"We will continue to adapt our plans and respond tactically to the evolving environment as the year progresses," the statement added.

CEO Graham Stapleton is stepping down to be replaced by Henry Birch, the former boss of the Very Group. Outgoing CEO Stapleton said: "This is a performance to be proud of, mitigating more than £30m of inflation in what continued to be a very challenging trading environment in FY25. I want to thank every single Halfords colleague for their hard work in achieving a significantly stronger result than we anticipated at the start of the financial year."

Halfords had not shied away from how challenging it expected 2024-25 to be, so to come out with sales up will undoubtedly be a positive. In October it said its new premium bike range is a hit – but the cycling market remains challenging following "UK's wettest spring since 1986" in 2024.

However, in January it upgraded its profit expectation following a strong end to 2024, with sales growth of 13 per cent led by cycling, the boost sufficient to see today's figures for the year tick into the positive.