Halfords looks like a contender for king of the mountains jersey as it powers over pandemic hill

Companies usually like to use Budget week to put out bad news, writes James Moore, but Halfords has done the opposite

Pedal power is fuelling a bumper result from the cycling retailer (Bloomberg)

Budget week is ideally suited for burying bad corporate and financial news and more of it wouldn’t be at all surprising given the pandemic. 

Halfords, however, chose to spring a surprise. The car parts to cycling retailer did something different with an unscheduled trading update brimming with mostly good news. A reverse profit warning if you like. 

There was so much fuel in it that the shares started the week like an oil gusher, putting on more than 16 per cent before gravity imposed itself. It’s worth pointing out that the stock was languishing at a low of just 49.42p last March.