Case Study: Halfords Group Plc achieves IFRS 16 transition and reliable lease accounting with MRI Software (Horizon CRE)

IFRS 16 in retail – transition enabled by purpose-built lease accounting software

Halfords Group Plc, the UK’s leading motoring and cycling retailer with over 450 stores, 350+ garages and 75 mobile vans, faced the major accounting challenge of adopting IFRS 16. The new standard required bringing property and equipment leases onto the balance sheet, and with nearly 700 lease locations the finance team recognised spreadsheets could not reliably handle the scale, complexity and audit requirements of the transition.

After a competitive procurement Halfords chose MRI Horizon CRE as its enterprise lease accounting platform. Horizon CRE enabled accurate, auditable IFRS 16 calculations from a single source of truth, supported processing of very large data volumes and made it possible to include lease obligations in full‑year 2020 accounts. Ongoing collaboration and product enhancements, plus responsive support, further strengthened reporting confidence and reduced reliance on error‑prone manual processes.

Halfords Group Plc

Katie Gregory

Head of Group Financial Reporting