Halfords Group plc is a retailer of car parts, car enhancement, camping, touring
and bicycles operating in the UK 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. History
The company was founded by Frederick Rushbrooke in Birmingham in 1892 as a
wholesale ironmongery. In 1902, Rushbrooke moved to a store on Halford
Street in Leicester, for which street the company was named, and started
selling cycling goods. It opened its 200th store in 1931, and
purchased the Birmingham Bicycle Company in 1945. In 1968, it opened its 300th
store. The company became a part of Burmah Oil
in 1965, following a takeover battle between Burmah and Smiths Industries.
During this time, Denis Thatcher, husband of the future Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher, was a non-executive director.
The company was acquired by Ward White Group in 1983 and subsequently acquired
by the Boots Group in 1991. In July 2002, it was then taken over by CVC
Capital Partners, and in June 2004, it was floated on the London Stock
Exchange. In 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.
On 11 July 2005, Halfords entered into a Collaboration Agreement with Autobacs
Seven Co., 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% of the company at approximately ¥7.5
billion. In 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. 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. However, in 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. The Czech locations
were sold to the Austrian company Fastbox.
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. In June 2014, Halfords acquired the
British bicycle manufacturer Boardman Bikes Ltd. for undisclosed sum.
In March 2015, it was announced that on 11 May, Jill McDonald, head of
McDonald's UK since 2010, would replace Matt Davies, as CEO.
Operations Today, Halfords has two business units:
Halfords Retail and Halfords Autocentres.
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.
The group use the following sub-brands as part of their portfolio: Bikehut,
Boardman Bikes, 13 Bikes, Carrera bicycles, Apollo, Trax, Victoria
Pendelton, Urban Escape, Exodus, Pampero, Sendai, Ripspeed.
Sponsorship The team won the BTCC overall Drivers
Championship in 2005 and 2006, with driver Matt Neal. In 2007, Halfords
sponsored the Team Dynamics BTCC racing team under the name of Team Halfords and
in 2008, Halfords started sponsoring a mixed professional bike team, Team
Halfords Bikehut, headed by Nicole Cooke, which disbanded ahead of the 2010
season. References
External links Official website