McDonald Swaps Fries For Ride To Halfords

The boss of McDonalds UK has been poached to become the new chief executive of Halfords.

Jill McDonald, who was also president of the fast food chain's North West Division, had run the UK business since 2010 and is set to replace Matt Davies who has been lured to run Tesco (Xetra: 852647 - news) 's UK operatons.

Halfords said she would be paid £500,000 basic pay, plus a maximum annual bonus worth 150% of her salary.

She will also be entitled to participate in a performance share plan worth up to 150% of salary and will be compensated for the loss of long-term share incentives at McDonald's by being granted stock worth £495,000 over the next three years.

Her appointment was a surprise given the major European role she is leaving behind, which took in responsibility for the company's biggest European market, Germany, and seven other nations including the UK.

The division comprised of 3,300 owned and franchise restaurants, employing 200,000 people.

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

Halfords chairman Dennis Millard said: "When the board began a search for a new CEO we were clear that we were looking for an outstanding business leader.

"We are delighted to have recruited Jill, who has a strong track record of heading a large, complex, service-led business with great success".

Ms McDonald joined McDonald's in 2006 from British Airways.

Halfords, which has a network of stores and vehicle service centres across the UK and Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) , has benefited from the surge of interest in bikes since the London 2012 Olympics.

Its latest half-year results showed underlying profits grew 10.8% to £49.4m in the six months to 26 September.