Halfords Group acquires Universal Tyre for £15 million

Halfords Group plc (LON: HFD) said on Friday that it will buy Universal Tyre and Autocentres (motoring services provider) for £15 million.

Southeast England-based Universal Tyre operates 89 commercial vans and 20 sites that specialise in tyre services. The British firm also offers general car maintenance and repairs. Halford wants to establish a network of more than 550 garages in the United Kingdom. The announced acquisition will bring the total to 374.

In a report published in January, Halfords registered an 11.5% annualised growth in its third-quarter sales.

Chief Executive Graham Stapleton’s comments on Friday

Chief Executive Graham Stapleton commented on the news on Friday and said:

“We continue to see strong demand for our Autocentres, for our expanding fleet of Halfords Mobile Expert vans, and for our growing commercial business. Universal will help us to meet that demand whilst also expanding our geographic footprint in a market for which we see significant potential.”

Halfords shares that you can conveniently trade via several user-friendly trading apps were reported about 1% down in premarket trading on Friday but gained roughly 3% on market open to trade at a per-share price of £3.42. The stock is currently trading at £3.37 per share versus £2.61 per share at the start of 2021.

Halfords performed largely upbeat in the stock market last year with an annual gain of close to 60%. At the time of writing, the Redditch-based retailer has a market cap of £668 million and a price to earnings ratio of 16.61.

Asda’s CEO Roger Burnley to step down next year

In separate news from the United Kingdom, the British supermarket chain Asda Stores Ltd. said late on Thursday that its Chief Executive Roger Burnley will step down next year. The news comes only a month after TDR Capital (private equity group) and billionaires Issa brothers bought the company.

In his statement on Thursday, Burnley said:

“My decision to leave Asda is personal and something I wanted to communicate to my colleagues as soon as I could. Whilst I remain fully committed to leading this great business for the next year and delivering our strategy, it is right to plan for a managed succession process well in advance.”

According to Asda, it plans on commencing its search for a new CEO shortly. Asda is currently the 3^rd largest supermarket group in the UK after Tesco and Sainsbury’s.