Halfords has racked up annual sales of £1 billion a year ahead of expectations, after its ‘getting into gear’ transformation strategy continues to progress.

In the 52-week period to 27th March 2015, Halfords saw like-for-like growth of 7% after an 11th quarter of consecutive growth. The group said that this was driven by “new products and brands, compelling offers and improving customer service”.

The ‘getting into gear’ programme has already seen customer feedback scores rise, as well as 45 stores refurbished and the launch of a new dedicated store chain, Cycle Republic.
Dennis Millard, chairman, commented: "This was another year of strong revenue growth, this time against tough comparatives, and leading to a pleasing improvement in profitability. We are delighted to have exceeded £1bn of Group Revenue, a year ahead of plan, and are building a sustainable platform for future growth.
“At the very core of our strategy is customer service and investment in our colleagues, our proposition and our infrastructure. In Retail, colleagues progressed well through their Gear 2 training, customer satisfaction scores rose, we have more refreshed stores and launched Cycle Republic and we strengthened our authority in our core categories. Autocentres has a clear strategy under new leadership, but whilst it has delivered an improved sales performance, there is room for improvement.

"There still remains much to do in both Retail and Autocentres and FY16 will be a particularly busy year of activity and investment as we continue to focus on driving the top-line and rolling out our Getting Into Gear strategy. I would like to warmly welcome Jill McDonald, our new CEO who started a few weeks ago, and who joins at an exciting time."