For the period52 weeks to 29 March
2019
£m
52 weeks to
30 March
2018
£m
Non-underlying operating expenses:
Organisational restructure costs (a)6.84.3
Group-wide strategic review (b)2.4
One-off royalty income (c)(1.6)
Acquisition and investment-related fees (d)0.20.2
Autocentres operational review (e)0.6
Operating lease obligation (f)(0.3)
Non-underlying operating expenditure7.84.8
Acquisition-related interest charge (g)(0.3)
Non-underlying items before tax7.84.5
Tax on non-underlying items (h)(1.4)(0.8)
Non-underlying items after tax6.43.7
  1. In the current and prior period separate and unrelated organisational restructuring activities were undertaken.

Current period costs comprised:

    • Redundancy costs of £1.5m relating to roles which will not be replaced; and
    • £5.3m of asset write-offs, principally resulting from the strategic decision to re-platform the Retail and Autocentres websites.

Costs in the prior period comprised:

    • Redundancy costs of £0.7m relating to roles which will not be replaced;
    • £1.0m provision for compensation to the new CEO on joining for foregoing entitlements from a previous employer, as outlined at the time of announcement of his appointment;
    • £1.5m in relation to a restructure of the Boardman business. Boardman has stopped selling directly to customers through the Boardman website. The website will be maintained as a 'brand' website, with customers being directed to purchase bikes predominantly through Cycle Republic; and
    • £1.1m in relation to asset write-offs, principally resulting from the strategic decision to close the marketplace offer on Halfords.com.
  1. Costs of £2.4m were incurred in the period in relation to the costs of preparing the new Group strategy, which comprised of the following:
    • £2.0m of external consultant costs; and
    • £0.4m warehouse and distribution costs in order to align our network with the new strategy.
  1. A one-off royalty income of £1.6m was received in the current period in relation to the use of a software licence.
  2. £0.2m of costs were incurred in the current period in relation to the investment in Tyres On The Drive and costs relating to a potential acquisition which did not progress. In the prior period £0.2m of costs were incurred relating to the investment in Tyres On The Drive.
  3. Prior period costs of £0.6m were incurred in relation to the review of the operating model of the Autocentres business.
  4. The operating lease obligation in the prior period related to a provision release of £0.3m from amounts originally provided for the Group's guarantor obligations arising from historically held lease guarantees.
  5. There was a £0.3m credit in FY18 from the release of the remaining portion of interest charge due on the contingent consideration for Tredz, which was paid in May 2017.
  6. The tax credit of £1.4m represents a tax rate of 18.0% applied to non-underlying items. The prior period represents a tax credit at 19.0% applied to non-underlying items.