Halfords: Shareholders voice displeasure in political donations vote

Shareholders in Halfords have voiced their displeasure in a vote to authorise the retailer to make political donations.

More than one in ten voted against the proposal at the Redditch-headquartered group’s annual general meeting, according to a document filed with the London Stock Exchange.

The 11.91 per cent in the against column comes after 4.01 per cent also refused to back the move at last year’s AGM.

However, Halfords has previously stated that it does not intend to use the backing it received from more than 88 per cent of its shareholders to actually make political donations.

In its annual report, Halfords said: “The group made no political donations and incurred no political expenditure during the period.

“It remains the company’s policy not to make political donations or to incur political expenditure.

“However, we recognise that the application of the relevant provisions of the Companies Act 2006
is potentially very broad in nature and, as last year, the board is seeking shareholder authority to ensure that the group does not inadvertently breach these provisions as a result of the breadth of its business activities.

“However, the board has no intention of using this shareholder authority.”

Profit slide for Halfords after ‘soft’ trading

The AGM came after Halfords reported a slide in profit as the cycling and motoring retailer cut its dividend and warned of “soft” trading for the current financial year.

The company reported a statutory pre-tax profit of £19.9m for the 12 months to 29 March, 2024, down 45 per cent from £36.2m the previous year. On an underlying basis, pre-tax profit came in 18 per cent lower at £36.1m.

The latter figure was in line with a profit warning from the firm in February that foretasted a range of £35m to £40m, down from £48m to £53m.

At the time, Halfords said its performance reflected “worse than anticipated” headwinds outside of its control, including a decline in market volumes in cycling and consumer tyres – down roughly 30 per cent and 14 per cent respectively.