McDonald’s UK boss Jill McDonald to take the wheel at Halfords
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Version 0 of 1. Halfords has appointed McDonald’s UK boss Jill McDonald as the new chief executive of the bike to car parts business. Ms McDonald replaces former boss Matt Davies, who left earlier this year to join Tesco as head of the UK business after his predecessor, Chris Bush, left in the wake of the accounting scandal that hit the supermarket. She is expected to continue Mr Davies’s three-year plan, which was half-way through, to turn around Halfords by improving customer service and increasing focus on its cycling division. Halfords chairman, Dennis Millard, said: “As she was growing in the McDonald’s organisation, she was moving from the front line and that’s where she’s always enjoyed being. She always wanted to be a FTSE 100 top dog. “She recognises that we are midway through a strategy and agrees with it. McDonald’s are in the top 10 companies to work for in the UK, and we hope she can bring that colleague engagement ethic with her to Halfords.” She joins on 11 May with a £495,000 golden hello in shares paid out over three years, along with a pay packet worth up to £1.25m with bonuses – the same as her predecessor. Halfords has seen its fortunes rise thanks to the popularity of the Tour de France and Britain’s Olympics successes in 2012. It has also increased its customer service ratings by hiring more full-time staff. McDonald’s has been criticised in recent years for its extensive use of zero-hours contracts for staff; however Mr Millard said the topic had not been discussed and he believed it would be unlikely that she would implement the same employment structure at Halfords. He said: “It hasn’t been raised and it is highly unlikely that we would go down that route, which would be a fundamental change in the way we hire our staff.” Ms McDonald already owns a Halfords bicycle and Mr Millard said she had brought in more healthy options to the menu at the fast-food chain during her time in charge, suggesting she was ideal for maintaining Halfords’ image. Before joining McDonald’s, Ms McDonald spent 14 years at British Airways, rising to head of global marketing. |