Shares in Halfords fell despite strong first-half sales growth after the retailer stopped short of issuing a further profit upgrade, disappointing investors who had bet on continued momentum following a strong summer trading period.

The FTSE 250 motoring and cycling retailer reported like-for-like sales growth of 7.1% for the 26 weeks to 2 October, supported by robust demand across both its retail and garage operations. Retail sales rose 7.7%, with motoring and cycling categories benefiting from warm weather and improved execution, while Autocentres recorded 6.1% growth.

While the performance reinforced the profit upgrade announced in August, Halfords maintained its full-year underlying pre-tax profit guidance of £55m to £65m rather than increasing forecasts further. The Worcestershire-based company also warned that earnings would be weighted towards the first half as the company accelerates spending on marketing and technology initiatives during the remainder of the year.

Shares were down as much as 10% on Wednesday.

Chief executive Henry Birch said: "The business continued to perform positively through the first half as we benefited from good execution against our strategic priorities and strong sales of seasonal categories through the warm summer weather. We move into the second half with confidence and look forward to sharing more detail on our progress at our interim results announcement later next month.”

Halfords is due to release its HY27 interim results on 26 November.

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