Evans Halshaw
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Evans Halshaw (nee Reg Vardy PLC) is a chain of car dealerships with around 100 showrooms, predominantly in Northern England. It is a subsidiary of Pendragon PLC. The company is headquartered in Sunderland, and the company used to be the official sponsor to Sunderland AFC, the football team. Reg Vardy has recently been changed to Evans Halshaw but not all sites have been rebranded. Reg Vardy now operates under Evans Halshaw from 2nd January 2006.
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[edit] Takeover
In January 2006, Pendragon offered 900p per Reg Vardy share. The family backed the proposal, at the original price of 800p. Sir Peter Vardy, the chief executive, effectively sold his stake to Pendragon after he put an option on his 16.6% stake.
Lookers tabled an 875p a share proposal, after the original Pendragon offer, which was then recommended by other members of the Board of Reg Vardy.
But to add to this, Pendragon had offered to buy Lookers, offering 1.15 new Pendragon shares for each Lookers share.
Pendragon won the bid battle for Reg Vardy. In the long run, perhaps the company was not evolving the way Reg would have liked.
[edit] Brass Band
Reg Vardy sponsors a brass band, arguably the most successful band in North East England. The band was originally associated with Craghead Colliery. The band was later sponsored by Ever Ready for a number of years, before Reg Vardy stepped in to provide the band with financial assistance. The Reg Vardy Band has dominated the brass band scene in the North East in recent years, winning the Regional Championships some 30 times. The band is currently ranked no.15 in the world in the 4BarsRest.com world rankings.
[edit] Christian Fundamentalism
Sir Peter Vardy, the multimillionaire behind the Reg Vardy company is an evangelical Christian, and a large supporter of Christian Fundamentalist education in the United Kingdom, having founded and largely funded the Emmanuel Schools Foundation (previously called the Vardy Foundation) which teaches creationism in science classes. source: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,,668840,00.html