(Adds detail and analyst comment.)
By Ian Walker
LONDON--Bike and car-parts retailer Halfords Group PLC (HFD.LN)
said Monday it has appointed Jill McDonald as chief executive
officer, replacing Matt Davies who is leaving to head supermarket
Tesco PLC's (TSCO.LN) operations in the U.K. and the Republic of
Ireland.
Mrs. McDonald is currently U.K. chief executive and president of
McDonald's Corp.'s (MCD) north west Europe division. She joined the
fast-food chain in 2006 as chief marketing officer U.K. &
Northern Europe and was appointed to her current role in 2010. She
is also a non executive director of Intercontinental Hotels Group
PLC (IHG.LN).
Halfords said Mrs. McDonald, who will take up the post May 11,
will get an annual basic salary of 500,000 pounds ($700,000) and
her maximum annual bonus entitlement is 150% of salary, prorated to
service for fiscal 2016. One-third of her bonus will be deferred
into shares for a period of three years, the company said.
Mr. Davies, who has been with U.K. automotive and cycles
retailer for two and a half years, said in January he would leave
the group at the end of May. He was responsible for instigating its
'Getting Into Gear' plan in 2013 to reposition its retail business,
and set a target for group sales to reach GBP1 billion in fiscal
2016. It also said it would invest GBP100 million in the plan over
the three years, underpinned by a significant increase in both
operating costs and stock.
Investec Securities said Mrs. McDonald's strong brand marketing
and customer-service background looked a good match for Halfords,
where its modernization and turnaround strategy is well progressed.
Investec has a buy rating on the stock and 520 pence target price.
Shares at 1405 GMT were trading 4.8 pence, or 1.06% lower, at 448.7
pence.
For the year ended March 28, 2014 group sales were GBP939.7
million, of which retail contributed GBP803.1 million. This
compares with group sales of GBP871.3 million for the year ended
March 29, 2013, of which GBP745.5 came from retail.
Halfords will report earnings for the 53 weeks ended April 3 on
June 5.
Razak Musah Baba contributed to this article.
Write to Ian Walker at ian.walker@wsj.com; @IanWalk40289749
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