Halfords has raided the senior ranks of Dixons Carphone to hire Graham Stapleton as its new chief executive.
Stapleton is currently the head of Dixons Carphone’s software business Honeybee and will be start at Halfords on January 15.
He will replace Jill McDonald, who is stepping down at the end of this month to take up a role as Marks & Spencer’s new managing director for clothing, home and beauty.
Halfords said its head of finance Jonny Mason will take on the additional role of interim chief executive from September 22 until Stapleton takes over the helm.
“Graham is an outstanding business leader with the retail, digital, services and category credentials that are an ideal fit for his role as chief executive of Halfords,” chairman Dennis Millard said.
“We set out our ‘Moving up a Gear’ strategy just under two years ago and Graham will continue to drive its implementation and pursue our service-led growth strategy.”
A retail veteran, Stapleton was chief executive of Dixons Carphone’s Connected World Services Division and also headed up the company’s UK & Ireland division for two years before he took on the role as head of Honeybee.
He was also Dixons Carphone board member until April this year and played a major role in the 2015 merger of Dixons and Carphone Warehouse, having held senior posts at the latter.
He has also previously held roles in B&Q parent company Kingfisher and at Marks & Spencer.
“Halfords is a business with a 125-year heritage and a market-leading brand that strongly resonates with me and the UK public and I am delighted to be joining the company,” Stapleton said.
“I really look forward to working with my new colleagues to continue to implement the service-led strategy and, over time, identify further growth potential.”
Stapleton’s annual salary at Halfords will be £535,000, with a pension contribution of more than £80,000 on top, as well as a potential maximum annual bonus worth £802,500.
He will also have access to long-term incentive scheme shares worth a possible £1.07 million if performance targets are met in full by 2020-22.
He has also been granted 185,872 shares and handed a £368,677 cash windfall in lieu of payments he would have been due at Dixons Carphone.
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