Halfords has made changes to its full-year guidance in its half-year report, dropping its underlying pre-tax profits range from between £48m-58m to between £48m-53m.

The company, which operates almost 400 stores and 645 garages, saw its share price drop by as much as 22% following the publication of its half-year results, Bloomberg has reported.

Despite the drop in share price, Halfords reported that its revenue increased by 13.9% in the six months to the end of September, standing at £873.5m, helped by demand for essential services such as MOTs and repairs.

Furthermore, its pre-tax profit also improved by 3.3% to £19.3m, which the firm said was as result of cost savings achieved through negotiating some property lease and freight costs.

Chief executive officer at Halfords, Graham Stapleton, said: "Despite the challenging and volatile trading environment and slower than expected recovery in some of our markets, we have made a good start to the year, with substantial sales and profit growth, and increased market share across the business. At the same time, we supported our customers through the ongoing cost of living crisis by delivering great value – when they need it most.

"In the face of continuing economic uncertainty, we remain fully focused on optimising every element of the business, and I’m particularly pleased with the very strong performance of Autocentres, where we are delivering significantly improved returns. In light of this, we are accelerating capital investment in the garage services operating model and customer experience in ten towns in the balance of this financial year."

Like-for-like sales also grew by 8.3%, despite what the company outlining a “challenging macro environment”.

However, Halfords did record a free cash outflow of £19.2m, compared to £100,000 in the same period last year.

Equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, Aarin Chiekrie, stated that Halfords' shift towards a more "reliable service-based revenue" should be "applauded", but he did go onto state that there may be issues ahead.

Chiekrie added: "For all the positives around the group’s growing autocentres division, a lack of skilled labour has been holding back progress to some extent. That has made it more difficult to service demand and could limit the group’s ability to carry out more complex and lucrative work. Finding enough trained staff to plug the hole won’t happen overnight, but the group said it’s made consistent progress on keeping hold of the staff it’s already got, with colleague retention improving every single month this year.

"There was also a slowdown in the more discretionary pockets of Halfords’ business, like cycling, which has been negatively impacted by low consumer confidence and adverse weather. That’s a trend that’s likely to continue into the second half as consumers tighten their belts, leading the group to narrow its full-year underlying pre-tax profit guidance to a range of £48m-£53m."

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