A poor Christmas for sales of children’s bicycles dominated trading figures from Halfords today after the retailer forecast disappointing profits.

The Redditch-based group, which has 464 stores in the UK and Ireland, said cycle sales slumped 16% on a like-for-like basis as fewer bikes were given as presents and premium products were affected by a slowdown in Cycle-to-Work sales.

The weakness in bicycles offset strong car maintenance sales, up 12%, as the chain helped customers cope with the difficult winter conditions.

Like-for-like sales in the retail division were down 6.6% in the 13 weeks to December 31, compared with the 5% reported in November, and Halfords said profits for the year to April would be near the bottom of the current range of City forecasts of between £127 million and £135 million.

Bicycle sales were already under pressure prior to the Christmas trading period due to poor availability caused by teething problems with Halfords’ new warehouse in Coventry and problems with suppliers in the Far East.