Jonny Mason, who joined Halfords (HFD) from Scandinavian chicken company Scandi Standard midway through last year, has forked out just over £185,000 to bump-up his holding in the retailer. The chief financial officer completed the transactions within a few days of a Q3 trading update, which showed that while gross margins remain under pressure, overall sales proved more resilient than recent estimates had suggested.
Like-for-like sales were broadly flat, but some segments of the business, such as bulbs/blades fitting and cycle repairs, provided cause for optimism. Gross margins are still expected to contract by a midpoint rate of 50 basis points, though this is seen as a reasonable decline given the potential impact of mild weather conditions on the high-margin car maintenance business.