It has been announced that Halfords pre-tax profit before non-recurring items dropped 12.1% to £40.8 million, although total revenue rose 6.3% to £567.3 million in the 26 weeks to 30th September.

Figures show that on a like-for-like basis, retail sales grew 2.4% and Halfords autocentres saw a little rise of 0.9%.

Chief executive at Halfords, Jill McDonald, said: "The first half sales performance was strong, improving through the period, with growth across all areas of our business. Our service-led offer is a key point of difference for Halfords and continued investment in this area has led to good progress in service-related sales.

“The depreciation of sterling brings cost headwinds. However, we have developed a number of initiatives to mitigate the profit impact and remain confident in the underlying performance of the group."

Other figures show that like-for-like sales in the motoring section increased 1.1% and cycling sales grew 4.6%.

During the first half, Halfords opened two new autocentres and two Cycle Republic stores and refurbished 12 stores and 12 autocentres.

Jill McDonald added: “I'm pleased with the momentum that is building as we implement our strategy. There is demonstrable progress across the plan, with more to come in the year ahead, and the benefits for colleagues and customers are starting to come through.”