Investing for growth
Many listed companies we cover make the mistake of succumbing to pressure from income obsessed shareholders and paying out cash as overly generous dividends, rather than prioritising investment in the business in support of further long-term growth. Thankfully, this is not the case for two companies covered in our update here, both of whom are accelerating investment to take advantage of a bigger opportunity.
Halfords: doing nicelyHalfords (LON:HFD), UK's leading provider of motoring and cycling products and services, announced that overall trading has been stronger than initially anticipated. As a result, they now expect full year profit before tax to be within the range of £90m - £100m, even after the full repayment of £10.7m of furlough income received. The Group’s Autocentres business appears to be doing particularly well, with strong demand for both their garage business and Halfords Mobile Expert vans. Cycling has also seen growth rates improve as supply disruption has eased. Our earlier commentary here ‘These UK retailers have a golden opportunity’ highlights…