Halfords is positive despite decrease in sales

Car parts and bicycle retailer Halfords has said it is confident about its profits despite a slight fall in sales, as its business has been resilient in the current economic climate.   Halfords, which is based in Redditch in Worcestershire, specializes in selling car parts, cycles, and outdoor leisure and camping equipment.  It said it expected to make a pre-tax profit of £92 million to £92.5 million for the year to 3 April, more than analysts had expected, even though in the 13 weeks to 27 March, like-for-like sales, which strip out the impact of new stores, decreased by 3.8 percent.   The 3.8 percent fall in like-for-like sales in the three months to March was an improvement on the 7.8 percent sales drop recorded in the previous quarter.   Bike sales rose, but the firm said it would be dropping its cycle-only store formats, Bikehut and Cycle Republic, and rebranding them as Halfords.   The company said it had seen a 50 percent increase, to 34,000, in the number of people buying bikes through the government's Cycle to Work scheme in the past year, and claims to have sold more than one million bicycles in the past year for the second year in a row.   "The Halfords business continues to perform strongly," said chief executive David Wild.   "While we believe it is prudent to forecast that the consumer environment will remain challenging, Halfords' unique, market-leading position provide the board with confidence in the group's prospects for the current financial year," he added.