
Financial Highlights
Group revenues up 7.9% (Q4 LFL: Retail: +9.9%; Autocentres +4.3%)
Cycling LFL growth of 19.4% (Q4 Cycling LFL: +41.6%)
Online Retail growth of +17.7% (Q4:+27.5%);
Retail costs and margins in line with guidance
Basic earnings per share up 4.0%
Capital expenditure up 61.7% to £30.4m, supporting the first year of the Retail Getting Into Gear strategy
Free cashflow of £39.5m, after a one-off tax settlement of £21.0m; Net Debt to EBITDA at 1.0:1
Business Highlights
A year of Cycling underpinned by a major cycle-range refresh and an increased presence in the Parts, Accessories and Clothing market
Strong results emanating from our Service Revolution, with a significant rise in customer-feedback scores
27 stores trading in the refreshed format as our Stores Fit To Shop rollout continued
A new Retail website launched in November 2013 with a material increase in conversion
New leadership for Autocentres focusing on colleagues and the customer experience
Proposed Final Dividend Per Share |
9.1p |
9.1p |
- |
|
Proposed Full-Year Dividend Per Share |
14.3p |
17.1p |
-16.4 |
|
Matt Davies, Chief Executive, commented:
"This was a year of significant Retail sales growth and the start of a strategic investment programme designed to deliver sustainable profit growth over the medium term. Our actions resulted in a particularly strong performance in every element of our Cycling category, illustrating our leading and growing role in the market. Car Maintenance sales were also encouraging, especially against the backdrop of a mild winter. Within Autocentres new leadership is now in place as we look to grow profitability in that business.
In the first year of our Getting Into Gear strategy our targets presented a year ago have been achieved. We are getting better prepared to delight our customers both in-store and online and we're making good progress with our refreshed stores, our infrastructure and the product range. Despite challenging sales comparatives ahead, I now anticipate Halfords delivering a FY15* Group EBITDA ahead of FY13