Auto and leisure products retailer Halfords said sales have increased by 7.2 per cent from last year and profit will be in line with previous guidance.
In the trading update for the year to March 28th 2008, Halfords said like-for-likes – sales from stores that existed a year ago – are also up by 4.2 per cent.
The retailer said the strongest performances were in car maintenance and cycling.
"Through the combination of good growth in sales and close scrutiny of costs the company is expecting to declare a full year profit before tax in line with market expectations and reflecting the ongoing share buyback programme anticipates it will announce high single digit growth in earnings per share," the company said in a statement.
In the nine weeks since the February interim management statement, which includes the Easter period, sales have increased by 7.6 per cent from last year and like-for-likes increased by 4.6 per cent.
The company's sales in the seven weeks to March 14th (excluding the two Easter weeks) showed sales growth of 6.2 per cent, representing a like-for-like increase of 3.2 per cent, in line with the underlying sales performance reported at the last company update.
This "provides further evidence of the resilient nature of the company's trading" Halfords said.
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