Halfords

Halfords

Type	Public
Traded as	(LSE: HFD)
Industry	Retail
Founded	1892
Founder	F W Rushbrooke
Headquarters	Redditch, Worcestershire, England
Key people	Dennis Millard (Chairman) Graham Stapleton (Chief Executive)
Products	Ripspeed, Bicycles and accessories, SatNav, Car audio, Tools, Child seats etc.
Services	Bicycle repair, vehicle part fitting, audio installation
Revenue	£1,095 million (2017)[1]
Operating income	£77.1 million (2017)[1]
Net income	£56.4 million (2017)[1]
Number of employees	10,000 (2018)[2]
Subsidiaries	Halfords Autocentre Boardman Bikes Ltd. Cycle Republic
Website	www.halfords.com

Halfords Group plc is a British retailer of car parts, car enhancement, camping and touring equipment and bicycles operating in the United Kingdom and Ireland. They also provide MOT, service and repairs in the United Kingdom, through Halfords Autocentre. Halfords Group is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

A similar retail company also called Halfords exists in the Netherlands and Belgium. This only has historical ties to the British Halfords Group (it was formed by Halfords, then sold).

History

A Halfords in Kirkstall, Leeds

Former Halfords logo, introduced in 1994, and used until 2003

A typical Halfords exterior, the Ocean Park store in Portsmouth

The company was founded by Frederick Rushbrooke in Birmingham in 1892 as a wholesale ironmongery.^[3] In 1902, Rushbrooke moved to a store on Halford Street in Leicester, and the company was named after this street, and started selling cycling goods.^[3] It opened its 200th store in 1931, and purchased the Birmingham Bicycle Company in 1945.^[3] In 1968, it opened its 300th store.^[3]

The company became a part of Burmah Oil in 1965, following a takeover battle between Burmah and Smiths Industries.^[3] During this time, Denis Thatcher, husband of the future Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, was a non executive director.^[4] The company was acquired by Ward White Group in 1983^[3] and subsequently acquired by the Boots Group in 1991.^[3]

In July 2002, it was then taken over by CVC Capital Partners,^[3] and in June 2004, it was floated on the London Stock Exchange.^[3] In February 2003, Halfords dropped the blue, white and red branding, in favour of a new black and orange logo. However, the 'new' logo had been used since the previous year, but it did not come into effect until 2003.^[5]

On 11 July 2005, Halfords entered into a Collaboration Agreement with Autobacs Seven Co.,^[6] a Japan based car accessory retailer with chains of stores all over the world and who is best known in other countries that do not have an Autobacs store for being the title sponsorship of Super GT and D1 Grand Prix.

On 13 December 2005, Autobacs acquired 5% (11,400,000 shares) of the company at approximately ¥7.5 billion.^[7]

In June 2007, Halfords opened its first shop in Central Europe, in a village near Prague. In the next two years, it opened five more stores in the Czech Republic and one in Poland (Wrocław, 2008). Expansion into Central Europe was seen as an opportunity because the cars on the road tend to be slightly older there, so people would be more adept at car maintenance.^[8]

However, in March 2010, it terminated these activities already, after the losses made in the initial years were deemed too high, and a new management wanted to focus on the domestic market.^[9]

On 18 February 2010, the company announced a deal to purchase the Nationwide Autocentre MOT chain, from the private equity firm Phoenix. The plan was to rebrand the centres under the Halfords name, and open another 200. As of April 2015, there are over 250 Halfords Autocentre garages dealing with MOTs, car repairs and servicing.^[10]

In June 2014, Halfords acquired the British bicycle manufacturer Boardman Bikes Ltd. (founded by the professional cyclist Chris Boardman, Sarah Mooney and Alan Ingarfield) for undisclosed sum.^[11][12] In March 2015, it was announced that on 11 May 2015, Jill McDonald, head of McDonald's UK since 2010, would replace Matt Davies (who was leaving to join Tesco), as CEO.^[13]

Halfords acquired Swansea based Tredz bikes, an online retailer of premium bikes and cycling accessories, and Wheelies, the UK’s largest provider of bicycle replacement for insurance companies, for £18.4m from founders Keith and Michael Jones on 24 May 2016. The group turned over around £32m in the year to 29 February 2016, making a profit before financial charges of £2.4m.^[14] The group continues to trade as a standalone business named Performance Cycling Limited.

On 3 May 2017, Halfords announced that Jill McDonald, CEO, had resigned from the business to take up the position of Managing Director: Clothing, Home & Beauty at Marks & Spencer. She remained as CEO of Halfords until the end of her notice period in October 2017.^[15] On 13 September 2017, Halfords made an announcement that Dixons Carphone executive Graham Stapleton would be its new CEO, with effect from January 2018.^[16]

Operations

Since 2010, Halfords Retail has operated around 465 stores, of which about 22 are in the Republic of Ireland and the others in the United Kingdom.^[17]

Sponsorship

The team won the BTCC overall Drivers Championship in 2005 and 2006, with driver Matt Neal.^[18] In March 2007, Halfords sponsored the Team Dynamics BTCC racing team under the name of Team Halfords^[19] and in January 2008, Halfords started sponsoring a mixed professional bike team, Team Halfords Bikehut, headed by Nicole Cooke.^[20]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Halfords.

• Official website