Breakfast briefing: Retail news on Halfords, Dixons and Sports Direct

Halfords selects The Bio Agency and Walker Media to manage its digital account

Halfords, the cycling and car accessories retailer, has selected The Bio Agency and Walker Media to handle its digital account, worth £3.5 million to £4 million, following a multi-agency pitch, according to Campaign Live.

The Bio Agency will act as Halford’s lead digital agency, and Walker Media will handle its digital planning and buying business. However, both agencies will work closely to handle all search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC), social, shopping, affiliates and digital display.

The move has helped Halfords consolidate its digital account into the two agencies, which was previously outsourced to a number of agencies.

Dixons introduces same day delivery

Dixons is launching a same-day delivery service that will mean any order made before 9.30am will reach shoppers by between 6.30pm and 10pm.

The service is the latest in Dixons’ multichannel drive, which has led the electricals specialist to focus on customer service and initiatives such as click-and-collect in the past year.

It is also launching an improved next-day delivery service and a Sunday delivery for small boxes, working with Royal Mail Courier Service.

Sports Direct appoints Goldman as corporate broker

Sports Direct International has named Goldman Sachs as its joint corporate broker. The retailer, which has a market capitalisation of roughly £4 billion, revealed the addition of Goldman Sachs to its broking roster in a stock market announcement today. Oriel Securities and Espirito Santo are also joint brokers to the company.

Sports Direct, which is a FTSE 250 listed retailer, wanted a large bank as a retained adviser because it is on-track for FTSE 100 inclusion for the next quarterly update of the UK index.