Halfords
 |
|
| Public (: ) | |
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1892 |
| Founder | F W Rushbrooke |
| Headquarters | Redditch, Worcestershire, England |
|
Key people
|
Dennis Millard (Chairman) Jill McDonald (Chief Executive) |
| Products | Ripspeed, Bicycles and accessories, SatNav, Car audio, Tools, Child seats etc. |
| Services | Bicycle repair, vehicle part fitting, audio installation, paint mixing |
| Revenue | £1,021.5 million (2016) |
| £84.5 million (2016) | |
| Profit | £63.5 million (2016) |
|
Number of employees
|
11,036 (2016) |
| Subsidiaries |
Boardman Bikes Ltd. |
| Website | www |
Halfords Group plc is a British retailer of car parts, car enhancement, camping and touring equipment and bicycles operating in the UK and Ireland. They also provide MOT, service and repairs in the United Kingdom, through . Halfords Group is listed on the 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).
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, and the company was named after this street, 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 . 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% (11,400,000 shares) 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 (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. 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.
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Wikipedia