Halfords’ profits have plunged as thousands of people give up on cycling after a boom during Covid.

Halfords said on Thursday that volumes of bicycle sales across the UK were down by almost a third following a surge during lockdowns. It also revealed an 18.3pc drop in pre-tax profits and said it expects the bike market to continue declining into 2025.

It said: “The cycling market consolidated at a faster rate than expected, leading to much higher levels of promotional activity, which put significant short-term pressure on gross margin.

“Customers cut their spend on big-ticket, discretionary products (e.g. bikes and touring) even further and we now expect volumes to decline in the cycling and consumer tyres markets in FY25.”

People stocked up on bikes during 2020 and 2021 when gyms were shut and it was only possible to exercise outdoors.

Sales of bicycles rose 22pc to 3.3m over the year to January 2021, according to Mintel data. The then-prime minister Boris Johnson went as far as vowing to ring in a “golden age of cycling”, pledging to spend ￡2bn on improving conditions for cyclists across Britain.

However with commuters now returning to offices more frequently and the cost of living crisis putting a crunch on household spending, demand has fallen away.

Many bike retailers that loaded up on stock in the hope of enduring sales growth were left in dire straits and forced to rely on heavy discounting to shift mountains of unsold bikes. Some, such as the Derby bike distributor Moore Large, were forced into administration.

While total sales at Halfords rose 8pc, cycling sales were down 3pc.

The end of the cycling boom was not the only worry for the retailer. The cost of living crisis has caused shoppers to cut back on new tyres, while bosses have also had to grapple with increasing wage and logistics costs.

The company said: “Inflation remains a material headwind, particularly driven by the 10pc increase in the national minimum wage.

“More recently we have seen very significant increases in sea freight rates, with spot rates more than doubling since the start of our financial year.

“Whilst we continue to successfully secure rates well below market spot rates, we now forecast freight costs to be ￡4-7m higher than we anticipated at the start of the year.”

Shares in Halfords are down almost 35pc over the past year.

Graham Stapleton, the chief executive, said: “While the short-term outlook remains challenging, we continue to build a unique, digitally-enabled, omni-channel business, which is well positioned for profitable growth”.