Greg Ward joins Halfords
Greg Ward has joined the Halfords Autocentres business, where the experienced truck, bus and agricultural tyre specialist will be commercial sales director.
Tag Archive for: Halfords Autocentres
Autocentres continue to drive Halfords sales post National Tyres purchase
HalfordsHalfords Group plc has reported strong group sales up 10.4 per cent like-for-like over two years driven by “an outstanding Autocentres performance through the third quarter 2021 MOT peak.” Indeed, ‘Motoring services’ now account for 70 per cent of sales due to the combination of Autocentres growth and the recent National Tyres purchase. Not only do these movements reflect Halfords’ efforts to lead the tyre retail/motoring services market, but represent steps towards the creation of motoring retail “fusion towns.
National Tyres, Iverson garages to be re-branded as Halfords Autocentres
Halfords GroupIn light of the news of Halfords acquisition of National Tyres and Iverson Tyres, Tyres & Accessories contacted various National Tyres and Halfords executives for comment on the subjects of branding and branch closures. In response, company spokesperson confirmed that the bulk of Axle Group businesses will be rebranded under the Halfords moniker with one or two exceptions.
Halfords investing up to £81 million in Axle Group acquisition
HalfordsFollowing the news that Halfords Group is buying Axle Group Holdings Ltd including 239 National Tyres garages and 60 mobile tyre fitting vans, further details relating to the transaction have emerged. Firstly, while company announcements refer to the purchase of “National”, Halfords’ latest acquisition actually sees the company purchase the entire issued share capital of Axle Group Holdings Ltd (“National”) for £62 million. And the transaction is expected to be completed on 9 December 2021.
Halfords ‘motoring revenue’ will be 70% post National Tyres acquisition
HalfordsAccording to Halfords, the acquisition of National Tyres delivers “on its strategy to become a Motoring Services focused business”. Halfords Autocentres has always been amongst the most profitable parts of the overall Halfords Group businesses and financial figures have consistently shown that autocentre-related revenue is amongst the fastest-growing parts of the group. But what the National Tyres acquisition specifically means is that what Halfords terms “motoring revenue” will “represent more than 70 per cent of Group pro-forma revenue”.
Iverson Tyres also bought by Halfords
BridgestoneIn addition to the acquisition of Axle Group/National Tyres, Halfords has also bought London-based Iverson Tyres, which describes itself as a “specialist supplier and fitter of tyres and provider of adjacent maintenance services”. Iverson Tyres was founded in 1992 and is made up of four locations in Chiswick, Hanwell, Northolt and Farnham Common.
Halfords buys National Tyres and Autocare in £62 million deal
Halfords is paying £62 million for National, the tyre and automotive servicing, maintenance and repair business, which operates under the National Tyres and Autocare, Viking Wholesale Tyres and Tyre Shopper brands. As a result, Halfords’ garage estate will grow by more than 60 per cent (from 372 to 604 garages), offering MOT, servicing, fitting and repair services. According to Halfords, this deal makes it “the largest vehicle service, maintenance and repair business in the UK, with the majority of UK households within a 20-minute drive of a Halfords garage.” However, Tyres & Accessories data suggests European Tyre Enterprises Ltd (ETEL), which incorporates 650 Kwik Fits in its portfolio, is still the largest in the UK with a total estate of 740 at the last count.
Autocentres drive strong Halfords 20-week figures
HalfordsHalfords Group plc announced a strong trading update on 8 September, with the 20-week figures once again illustrating the rapid growth of the company’s automotive businesses such as Halfords Autocentres and its more recently-acquired tyre wholesale and truck tyre operations.
Halfords pilots integrated branch concept
HalfordsOn Friday 3 September Halfords unveiled its new retail concept at its recently refurbished Colchester branch. The new concept seeks to integrate the differing parts of the Halfords portfolio (including autocentres and mobile experts) and was hailed by CEO Graham Stapleton as “the future of Halfords”. As well as the Colchester pilot, the new concept will be trialled in two other locations.
Lodge Tyres consolidated in 2020, growing in 2021
Tyre Industry Publications LtdFollowing Halfords’ recent acquisitions of Universal Tyres and McConnechy’s before that, many have speculated regarding what the future holds for Lodge Tyres. Rumours aside, the short story is that Lodge Tyres had a good 2020 despite the obvious Covid-19-related adversity and is set for further growth in 2021. Tyres & Accessories met with Lodge Tyres managing director Andy Christmas and commercial director Martin O’Brien in order to get the latest details straight from Lodge Tyres’ management.
Halfords sells its Avayler software to American Tire Distributors (ATD)
ATDHalfords has entered the B2B software market by making American Tire Distributors Inc. (ATD) the first customer of Halfords’ Avayler proprietary software which streamlines “service delivery for companies that operate in multiple locations.” According to Halfords, the Avayler platform will underpin ATD’s operations, supplying tyres to 80,000 garages across the US. ATD will also be the exclusive provider of the Avayler Mobile platform to the North American automotive market. ATD is one of the largest independent suppliers of tyres in the US replacement market and the part owner of Tirebuyer.com (which was established by blackcircles.com founder Mike Welch). No price details associated with the sale of the Avayler software system to ATD have yet been disclosed.
Halfords Autocentres reports 89.6% increase in pre-tax profit – next stop ‘market leadership’
The Halfords Group reported a strong set of full-year 2021 that saw the company generate total sales of 1,292.5 million in 2021, up 13.1 per cent compared with the 2020 financial year (2020: 1,155.1 million). The financial report, which was published on 17 June 2021, shows that by all measures pre-tax profits skyrocketed. Indeed, Halfords Group reported profit before tax after the impact of IFRS 16 of £64.5 million, which amounts to a headline-grabbing increase of 184.1 per cent compared with the previous year.
Halfords Autocentres accounted for an increasing proportion of the group’s overall sales figures, reporting 2021 sales of £252.5 million, up 31.6 per cent compared with 2020’s £194.1 million.
Halfords runs £5000 best home garage competition
HalfordsWe’ve all seen the meme. Mechanic hourly rate: Standard – £100; £175 if you watch; and £200 if you worked on it first! Nevertheless, with 40 per cent of people spending more time in their garage during lockdown than before, Halfords is running a “best home garage” competition. The prize? £5000 cash and a “Halfords Ultimate Garage Bundle”.
Halfords Autocentres joins NTDA
Halfords Autocentres has joined the National Tyre Distributors Association (NTDA), bringing all of its 358 branches into the NTDA network. The NTDA has also confirmed that in line with the ‘Rules of the Association’, Halfords Autocentres will also have two representatives joining the NTDA’s executive council, the governing body of the association.
The top 10 UK tyre retail chains 2021
Kwik FitWith a pandemic, an MOT extension and three lockdowns to contend with, describing the last year as “difficult” would be an understatement. Nevertheless, tyre retailers have demonstrated that they are not only key workers essential to keeping the British Isles rolling, but also versatile and resilient businesspeople during the last 12 months. A quick look at the top 25 UK tyre retail chains 2021 table reveals that it has been a more eventful year than normal in terms of branch openings and closings, but overall the clear message is one of consolidation. As a result, the top 25 UK tyre retail chains wield more power than ever. Specifically, the top 25 now run 2528 branches between them. When our coverage of this area began back at the end of the 2008/2009 tax year, the figure was 1978. During the interim, the rough estimate for the total number of tyre retailers national has stayed stable at around 10,000 specialists (that number is roughly double that if you include general garages). This means the top 25 occupy roughly 25 per cent of the number of branches, up 6 percentage points since 2009.
