Business
Proposed closure of Cycle Republic and Boardman...
Proposed closure of Cycle Republic and Boardman....
About this update from Halfords Group Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n \n\n\nHalfords Group PLC (HFD)\n\n\n\nHalfords Group PLC: Proposed closure of Cycle Republic and Boardman Performance Centre16-March-2020 / 09:00 GMT/BSTDissemination of a Regulatory Announcement that contains inside information according to REGULATION (EU) No 596/2014 (MAR), transmitted by EQS Group.The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.\n\n\n \n\n16th March 2020 \n\n \n\nHalfords Group plc \n\nProposed closure of Cycle Republic and Boardman Performance Centre\n\n \n\nHalfords Group plc (\"Halfords\" or \"The Group\") today announces a proposal to close the operations of Cycle Republic and the Boardman Performance Centre (\"Cycle Republic\") following a strategic review of the Group's cycling businesses. \n\n \n\nOur proposal links directly to our strategic update in November 2019. At the time, we outlined our intent to improve the profitability of our cycling business and the proposed closure of Cycle Republic reflects the challenging economics of a store-based dedicated performance cycling operation. Exiting a low-returning, stock intensive business allows us to improve our return on capital whilst freeing up investment and resources to continue to drive our services-focused strategy, with an emphasis on accelerating the growth of our motoring businesses. The proposed closure is expected to be marginally accretive to earnings in FY21 and will also enhance cashflow and net debt on an ongoing basis, principally through lower working capital requirements. \n\n \n\nPerformance Cycling is an important category for Halfords. We currently serve the enthusiast cycling market through Tredz, a predominantly online business, and through Cycle Republic, a commuter led, store and online offer. Going forward, we believe we will better serve this market by singularly focusing our investment and resources into the Tredz brand, which has both a differentiated and specialist customer proposition and a superior business model in this part of the cycling market. \n\n \n\nWith investment in the Tredz business, alongside our core Halfords Retail cycling business, we believe we will be uniquely placed to serve both the enthusiast and the mainstream customer in a more economic way than we do today. \n\n \n\nFrom today we will launch a consultation p...