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Halfords Autocentres is an excellent complement to Halfords Retail,
building on our growing car parts and wefit service business. Car
aftercare is a large and highly attractive market with a value of
£9bn. Capacity is shrinking as the number of independent
garages declines, leading to increasing demand from motorists for a
reliable, quality independent operator. The long-term growth
opportunity of this business remains compelling given the market
size, its fragmentation, the strength of the Halfords Autocentres
proposition and the potential to leverage the Halfords brand
Our Autocentres strategy is to offer motorists dealership quality service and repairs at more affordable prices.
The Service market consists of two broad segments: Franchised dealers and small private garages. The Autocentres business is the perfect balance. We are always more competitive than franchised dealers and we have the brand and reputation to put customers at ease and the diagnostic computer technology to maintain all cars both within and outside their warranties. The strategy is built on these four pillars:
Service is at the heart of the Autocentre offer. Motorists want quality, reliable service from a trusted provider.
Our main commitment though, is to the highest levels of customer service. Our offer is built on providing an honest appraisal of the work, explaining clearly to customers our recommendations and a transparent schedule of pricing. We assess all centres using the Net Promoter Scoring – which scores each centre on customer feedback and recommendation. We operate a continual improvement policy so that low scoring centres have a plan on how to enhance their performance.
Our aim is to improve customer retention at our existing centres: over the last five years this has increased from 43.0% to 51.5% and we believe we can ultimately achieve 60.0%+.
As well as our service for private motorists we are also targeting increased penetration of the fleet market. There is growing appreciation amongst fleet operators that our business offers them the scope to lower the cost of maintaining their vehicles without compromising the quality of the service they receive in any way.
The second pillar of our sales growth strategy is to increase the number of centres. Our research on the geography and demographics of the £9bn car servicing and repair market and of our local catchment sizes shows that there is scope for up to 600 Autocentre locations throughout Britain. We have targeted new centre openings at the rate of approximately 30 further locations per year.
To provide the flexibility to invest in our customer offer we are vigilant across the business on cost control. We look for ways to reduce unnecessary overheads wherever possible. Our most recent annual report outlines cost saving measures that have been implemented in the last year and can be viewed on this site.
We believe there is significant opportunity to leverage the Halfords brand in garage servicing sector. Since we acquired the Autocentres business from Nationwide Autocentres we have completely rebranded them as Halfords Autocentres. This has introduced a trusted high street brand name, with a heritage in the automotive sector, into the fragmented garage servicing market.
Our plan is to recruit new customers and to cross sell our services to existing Halfords’ customers. We will achieve this through better marketing and use of customer data. This will give our Autocentres significantly more credibility and recognition and make our marketing much more effective in attracting customers. Since acquiring our Autocentres business we have launched our first high profile national media campaign on radio.
Benefits of the operational gearing of the Autocentres business are expected as sales improve, supported by cost and purchasing synergies.
Our Autocentres strategy is to offer motorists dealership quality service and repairs at more affordable prices.
The Service market consists of two broad segments: Franchised dealers and small private garages. The Autocentres business is the perfect balance. We are always more competitive than franchised dealers and we have the brand and reputation to put customers at ease and the diagnostic computer technology to maintain all cars both within and outside their warranties. The strategy is built on these four pillars:
- Maintaining and growing service advantage
- Investing in new centres
- Maintaining low cost structures
- Leveraging the Halfords brand
Maintaining and growing service advantage
Service is at the heart of the Autocentre offer. Motorists want quality, reliable service from a trusted provider.
Our main commitment though, is to the highest levels of customer service. Our offer is built on providing an honest appraisal of the work, explaining clearly to customers our recommendations and a transparent schedule of pricing. We assess all centres using the Net Promoter Scoring – which scores each centre on customer feedback and recommendation. We operate a continual improvement policy so that low scoring centres have a plan on how to enhance their performance.
Our aim is to improve customer retention at our existing centres: over the last five years this has increased from 43.0% to 51.5% and we believe we can ultimately achieve 60.0%+.
As well as our service for private motorists we are also targeting increased penetration of the fleet market. There is growing appreciation amongst fleet operators that our business offers them the scope to lower the cost of maintaining their vehicles without compromising the quality of the service they receive in any way.
Investing in new centres
The second pillar of our sales growth strategy is to increase the number of centres. Our research on the geography and demographics of the £9bn car servicing and repair market and of our local catchment sizes shows that there is scope for up to 600 Autocentre locations throughout Britain. We have targeted new centre openings at the rate of approximately 30 further locations per year.
Maintaining low cost structures
To provide the flexibility to invest in our customer offer we are vigilant across the business on cost control. We look for ways to reduce unnecessary overheads wherever possible. Our most recent annual report outlines cost saving measures that have been implemented in the last year and can be viewed on this site.
Leveraging the Halfords brand
We believe there is significant opportunity to leverage the Halfords brand in garage servicing sector. Since we acquired the Autocentres business from Nationwide Autocentres we have completely rebranded them as Halfords Autocentres. This has introduced a trusted high street brand name, with a heritage in the automotive sector, into the fragmented garage servicing market.
Our plan is to recruit new customers and to cross sell our services to existing Halfords’ customers. We will achieve this through better marketing and use of customer data. This will give our Autocentres significantly more credibility and recognition and make our marketing much more effective in attracting customers. Since acquiring our Autocentres business we have launched our first high profile national media campaign on radio.
Benefits of the operational gearing of the Autocentres business are expected as sales improve, supported by cost and purchasing synergies.