Former Pets at Home boss Matt Davies is to become chief executive of Halfords, Retail Week can reveal.
The highly regarded Davies, who revealed he would step down as chief executive of Pets at Home late last year, is expected to be named Halfords’ new boss tomorrow when the car accessories and bikes specialist issues a first-half update.
Davies, who takes up the Halfords role tomorrow, stepped down from Pets at Home after the 10 years in charge, during which time he built sales and profits leading to its sale for £995m to private equity giant KKR in 2010.
He replaces former Halfords boss David Wild who exited the business in July, as it issued a profit warning in its first quarter.
Since leaving, he has joined the board of Dunelm - where former Halfords finance director Nick Wharton is chief executive - as a non-executive director.
He will bring to Halfords experience of specialist retail and building a service-driven culture, as well as of extending the business into services.
That is all expected to benefit embattled Halfords which aims to leverage its own specialist credentials and is pushing into services through in-store initiatives such as WeFit and its Autocentres business.
Analysts expect Halfords to post a like-for-like retail sales decline of about 5.5%, and the City consensus for first-half profits is £35.8m.
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