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Motoring retailer Halfords has announced it has acquired the Stockport based group behind National Tyres and Autocare in a £62 million deal.
The acquisition will see Halfords take over all National Tyres’ branches across the UK, as well as Viking Wholesale Tyres and Tyre Shopper which are also owned by parent company Axle Group. Halfords have also committed to a £17 million investment post-acquisition on capital expenditure and a further £2 million in integration costs.
The acquisition will significantly expand Halfords’ presence nationwide, bringing the majority of motorists in mainland Great Britain within 20 minutes of a branch. The deal will also expand mobile services to reach more customers at home or work.
Graham Stapleton, Chief Executive Officer of Halfords, commented:
“This acquisition helps cement our position as the UK’s largest vehicle service, maintenance and repair business. It will also see us deliver on our established strategy of evolving Halfords to become a Motoring Services focused business, with Motoring revenue set to represent more than 70% of our pro forma revenue following the acquisition.
“National has a high quality, UK-wide network of garages and mobile tyre fitting vans, and 1,400 highly skilled colleagues, providing a complementary fit with Halfords’ existing operations.
“Post-acquisition, Halfords will have over 1,400 fixed or mobile motoring services locations, servicing a broad range of vehicles and delivering 7.5 million motoring jobs a year.”
Stockport based National Tyres and sister companies employers around 1400 people nationwide, and at its Stockport HQ, of which all are expected to be transferred to Halfords, including current CEO Tony Neill, with no redundancies expected. Stapleton added:
“Given our recent track record of successfully acquiring and integrating businesses, and the potential we see to further grow our motoring services business in other areas of the country, I am very excited about our future growth prospects, and I look forward to welcoming the new teams to the business.”