Burger boss pedals over to Halfords

HALFORDS supersized its search for a new boss with the appointment of McDonald’s head of UK and Northern European operations as its next chief executive.

Jill McDonald – who has no family link with the fast-food chain – is swapping burgers for bikes and will replace Matt Davies, widely credited with turning the business around.

Davies announced at the turn of the year that he had been approached by Tesco to breathe new life into its troubled UK arm.

Halfords has enjoyed something of a revival specialising on bike sales and adding extra services for car owners.

McDonald, pictured, has worked at large consumer goods firms including toothpasteto- soaps giant Colgate Palmolive, airline British Airways and is a nonexecutive at InterContinental Hotels.

She said: ‘ Halfords is a business and brand that resonates with me and the UK public and I am delighted to be joining the company.’

Chairman Dennis Millard said: ‘We are delighted to have recruited Jill, who has a strong track record of heading a large, complex, service-led business with great success.

‘I’m really excited that we have attracted someone of Jill’s calibre who will build on what we’ve achieved over the last few years and we all really look forward to working with her.’

Halfords shares went down 1.3p to 452.2p.

She leaves McDonalds at a difficult time. While she was running the key UK and Northern European operations the group suffered one of its worst financial years in its history.

The fast food chain famous for Big Macs, Nuggets and Happy Meals, saw sales drop by 7pc in 2014 and profits fell by 15pc. Kate Calvert, an analyst at broker Investec, said: ‘Her strong brand marketing and customer service background looks a good match for Halfords where the modernisation and turnaround strategy is well progressed.’

At Halfords McDonald will be paid a salary of some £500,000 and will be eligible for a bonus up to three times that amount, along with a long-term incentive plan of up to £1.5m.