Halfords has agreed to acquire the group behind the likes of National Tyres and Autocare in a deal worth more than £60m.
The giant has signed a sale and purchase agreement to purchase the entire issued share capital of Stockport-headquartered Axle Group Holdings, whose brands also include Viking Wholesale Tyres and Tyre Shopper, for £62m.
The consideration will be paid in cash on the date of completion, which is expected to be December 9, 2021.
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Halfords, which is headquartered in the West Midlands, also confirmed that a further investment of about £17m will be made post acquisition on associated capital expenditure and about £2m on integration costs.
To fund the deal, the listed company approximately £63.4m through the issue of new shares.
On completion of the acquisition, National will be integrated into Halfords' autocentres business.
Halfords chief executive Graham Stapleton said: "This acquisition helps cement our position as the UK's largest vehicle service, maintenance and repair business.
"It will also see us deliver on our established strategy of evolving Halfords to become a motoring services-focused business, with motoring revenue set to represent more than 70% of our pro-forma revenue following the acquisition.
"National has a high quality, UK-wide network of garages and mobile tyre fitting vans, and 1,400 highly skilled colleagues, providing a complementary fit with Halfords' existing operations.
"Post-acquisition, Halfords will have over 1,400 fixed or mobile motoring services locations, servicing a broad range of vehicles and delivering 7.5 million motoring jobs a year.
"This increased scale will bring the majority of UK-mainland motorists within a 20-minute drive of a Halfords garage, with even more vans available to provide mobile services at their home or work.
"Given our recent track record of successfully acquiring and integrating businesses, and the potential we see to further grow our motoring services business in other areas of the country, I am very excited about our future growth prospects, and I look forward to welcoming the new teams to the business."
In a statement to the London Stock Exchange, Halfords said the deal surpasses its current target of 550 garages and 200 consumer vans.
Post-completion, Halfords will have approximately 604 garages, 234 consumer vans and 190 commercial vans.
Including retail stores this will mean a combined total of over 1,400 fixed or mobile motoring services locations.
James Dow of Dow Schofield Watts provided corporate finance advice to Axle Group.
