Halfords has appointed Virgin Active’s Jo Hartley as its new chief financial officer.

Due to join the business in mid-April 2022, she will succeed Loraine Woodhouse, who has announced her intention to retire from a full-time plc role.

Hartley has been working as group chief financial officer at Virgin Active since 2015. After starting her career at Deloitte UK, she then moved to Tesco where she held a number of roles, including finance director for convenience stores and operations and then property for Tesco UK. She subsequently worked as chief financial  officer of Tesco Poland before leading the finance function for Tesco UK as interim finance director.

In order to ensure a smooth transition, Woodhouse will remain with the business until the retailer’s full year preliminary results in June 2022, at which point she will step down from her role.