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Halfords has a unique offer that brings together ranges from
categories where we have leading positions in strong markets. We
continue to develop our position by extending the ranges through
partnership with manufacturers’ brands and development of our
own and exclusive brand offer and by differentiating through the
quality of service we offer. Our store retail offer is reinforced
by Halfords dot com. Together these provide good opportunities for
future growth, backed by active gross margin management and tight
cost control.
Our retail strategy is built on the four pillars of:
Range
Halfords Retail maintains market-leading positions across a unique blend of categories with ranges of unrivalled breadth and depth. Our scale provides a unique ability to develop and source high quality, own brand alternatives to branded ranges. These offer customers real value through innovative, high specification products at great prices and create a competitive advantage for Halfords. Products are ranged to give choice through a good, better, best price architecture. Our value offer is completed by our in-store colleagues who are trained to provide information and advice on the best choices of product and accessories and to fit many of these products for customers while they are in store.
The Directors intend to continue to leverage Halfords’ brands into new categories and new product ranges within existing categories. Recent examples include innovative new designs like longer-life car light bulbs, extension of our existing ranges like new camping lines. We also work constantly on improving the designs and specifications of our existing lines.
Halfords is the UK’s leading bike retailer, selling around one million bikes a year through our own brands, exclusive supply arrangements and manufacturers’ brands.
These innovative ranges mean that Halfords is uniquely positioned to compete strongly at all levels of the cycle market, from entry level boxed bikes to premium cycles for the competitive rider.
In our Travel Solutions ranges we successfully launched a new exclusive brand of child seats called Pampero and a redesigned range of Exodus roof boxes. We have developed and extended our camping range through popular products like our Urban Escape branded tent packs. Meanwhile in Car Entertainment we were first movers in the development of a digital radio offering through the introduction of our new own brand Sonichi units.
Extending our Service
The expert knowledge, advice and service of our in-store colleagues are at the heart of the Halfords customer offer. They sell and fit many of our products and this differentiates Halfords from our competition, acts as a barrier to market entry and generates attractive levels of return.
All product categories include a core service element; for instance, more than 2,000 colleagues are professionally trained and accredited by RoSPA to fit child seats to cars. The foundation of our fitting proposition though is wefit, the on-demand fitting of Car Bulbs, Windscreen Blades and Batteries, (3Bs), by our trained in-store colleagues.
We build 95% of the bikes we sell and all new bikes come with the offer of a free six-week first service. We also offer a Bike Care Plan, which provides repairs free of labour charges for the lifetime of the contract. We also offer oil top-ups and fit Sat Navs, audio systems, child seats and roof boxes.
Our strategy is to grow awareness of our fitting capability and to continue to invest in technical and skills training of colleagues so that we can further increase fitting levels. We set stretching targets to increase awareness, uptake and revenue from our service offer.
Our colleagues, in all areas of our business, are of paramount importance to the provision of both our services and our helpfulness to customers. Their passion and abilities are central to the delivery of our strategic objectives and we are extremely proud of their commitment and enthusiasm.
With over 460 stores trading throughout the UK and Ireland our scale supports our position as the store of first choice. 90% of UK residents live within a 20-minute journey of one of our stores.
The Group has considerable experience in both converting existing stores and opening new stores. Our active store refresh programme is working across the estate to rebalance the store layout and signage around the key areas of growth and interest for customers.
In London we are exploring new formats, reflecting the shortage of suitable superstore opportunities.
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.
Cost control ensures efficient use of resources, the correct operating base for the prevailing economic environment and the headroom to fund strategic investments in future growth. Our three major recent initiatives included the reconfiguration of our distribution network, the review of our store labour structure and favourable negotiations with landlords.
We also operate a flexible sourcing policy and work closely with suppliers around the globe to ensure we achieve the most competitive product costs. Our sourcing team based in Asia control all aspects of the supply chain to eliminate unnecessary costs in transport, shipping and stock holding. We are constantly exploring ways to ameliorate product cost pressures through our market leading positions and flexible sourcing options.
A major facet of our strategy is to stay at the forefront of multichannel development. Our brand is growing rapidly online as customers turn to the internet to research and buy products. We have invested in our dot com platform and in enhancing our online offer we continue to increase our online advertising and improve user experience on the site. We have thousands of product ratings and reviews from customers and also host a popular “Ask and Answer” facility, which allows customers to tap into the expertise and experience of other users.
In addition to extending site functionality we are increasing the range of products we offer online. Much of the additional inventory is managed in partnership with 3rd party suppliers; this reduces stock costs and obsolescence risk.
Our strategy is to seamlessly integrate Halfords.com and our store operations. Our product mix lends itself to this strategy, as customers often want further advice, or a demonstration and fitting of the product. A store visit also means they can buy the right accessories to make best use of their new product. So Halfords operates a true multichannel offer where 87% of our internet purchases are researched online and then collected from our stores.
This ability to add further expert advice and service to our online mix gives Halfords a differentiated offer and a competitive advantage
Our retail strategy is built on the four pillars of:
- Extending Range and Services
- Investing in the Store Portfolio
- Ongoing focus on cost control
- Leveraging the Halfords brand in multichannel
Extending Range and Services
Range
Halfords Retail maintains market-leading positions across a unique blend of categories with ranges of unrivalled breadth and depth. Our scale provides a unique ability to develop and source high quality, own brand alternatives to branded ranges. These offer customers real value through innovative, high specification products at great prices and create a competitive advantage for Halfords. Products are ranged to give choice through a good, better, best price architecture. Our value offer is completed by our in-store colleagues who are trained to provide information and advice on the best choices of product and accessories and to fit many of these products for customers while they are in store.
The Directors intend to continue to leverage Halfords’ brands into new categories and new product ranges within existing categories. Recent examples include innovative new designs like longer-life car light bulbs, extension of our existing ranges like new camping lines. We also work constantly on improving the designs and specifications of our existing lines.
Halfords is the UK’s leading bike retailer, selling around one million bikes a year through our own brands, exclusive supply arrangements and manufacturers’ brands.
- Halfords Trax are great bikes at entry-level prices. Sold boxed for self-assembly, they are good, basic bikes offering great value. It gives Halfords a competitive offer against supermarkets and other non-specialist outlets.
- Apollo is the nation’s leading bike brand and provides the family and leisure cyclist with a reliable, great value bike.
- Carrera is Halfords’ entry-level premium bike. It is aimed at the keen cyclist who has an opinion about the specification of their bike and wants more performance but at an affordable price.
- Voodoo is exclusively sold by Halfords in the UK and is a range of mountain bikes designed by award winning American mountain biker Joe Murray.
- Boardman bikes are designed by former Olympic gold medallist Chris Boardman and offer performance bikes for the serious competitor at unparalleled value. This range of 17 models has already been widely acclaimed for its leading designs, construction and price competitiveness and is endorsed by world famous riders like Alistair Brownlee, the reigning World Triathlon champion.
These innovative ranges mean that Halfords is uniquely positioned to compete strongly at all levels of the cycle market, from entry level boxed bikes to premium cycles for the competitive rider.
In our Travel Solutions ranges we successfully launched a new exclusive brand of child seats called Pampero and a redesigned range of Exodus roof boxes. We have developed and extended our camping range through popular products like our Urban Escape branded tent packs. Meanwhile in Car Entertainment we were first movers in the development of a digital radio offering through the introduction of our new own brand Sonichi units.
Extending our Service
The expert knowledge, advice and service of our in-store colleagues are at the heart of the Halfords customer offer. They sell and fit many of our products and this differentiates Halfords from our competition, acts as a barrier to market entry and generates attractive levels of return.
All product categories include a core service element; for instance, more than 2,000 colleagues are professionally trained and accredited by RoSPA to fit child seats to cars. The foundation of our fitting proposition though is wefit, the on-demand fitting of Car Bulbs, Windscreen Blades and Batteries, (3Bs), by our trained in-store colleagues.
We build 95% of the bikes we sell and all new bikes come with the offer of a free six-week first service. We also offer a Bike Care Plan, which provides repairs free of labour charges for the lifetime of the contract. We also offer oil top-ups and fit Sat Navs, audio systems, child seats and roof boxes.
Our strategy is to grow awareness of our fitting capability and to continue to invest in technical and skills training of colleagues so that we can further increase fitting levels. We set stretching targets to increase awareness, uptake and revenue from our service offer.
Our colleagues, in all areas of our business, are of paramount importance to the provision of both our services and our helpfulness to customers. Their passion and abilities are central to the delivery of our strategic objectives and we are extremely proud of their commitment and enthusiasm.
Investing in the Store Portfolio
With over 460 stores trading throughout the UK and Ireland our scale supports our position as the store of first choice. 90% of UK residents live within a 20-minute journey of one of our stores.
The Group has considerable experience in both converting existing stores and opening new stores. Our active store refresh programme is working across the estate to rebalance the store layout and signage around the key areas of growth and interest for customers.
In London we are exploring new formats, reflecting the shortage of suitable superstore opportunities.
Ongoing focus on cost control
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.
Cost control ensures efficient use of resources, the correct operating base for the prevailing economic environment and the headroom to fund strategic investments in future growth. Our three major recent initiatives included the reconfiguration of our distribution network, the review of our store labour structure and favourable negotiations with landlords.
We also operate a flexible sourcing policy and work closely with suppliers around the globe to ensure we achieve the most competitive product costs. Our sourcing team based in Asia control all aspects of the supply chain to eliminate unnecessary costs in transport, shipping and stock holding. We are constantly exploring ways to ameliorate product cost pressures through our market leading positions and flexible sourcing options.
Leveraging the Halfords brand in multichannel
A major facet of our strategy is to stay at the forefront of multichannel development. Our brand is growing rapidly online as customers turn to the internet to research and buy products. We have invested in our dot com platform and in enhancing our online offer we continue to increase our online advertising and improve user experience on the site. We have thousands of product ratings and reviews from customers and also host a popular “Ask and Answer” facility, which allows customers to tap into the expertise and experience of other users.
In addition to extending site functionality we are increasing the range of products we offer online. Much of the additional inventory is managed in partnership with 3rd party suppliers; this reduces stock costs and obsolescence risk.
Our strategy is to seamlessly integrate Halfords.com and our store operations. Our product mix lends itself to this strategy, as customers often want further advice, or a demonstration and fitting of the product. A store visit also means they can buy the right accessories to make best use of their new product. So Halfords operates a true multichannel offer where 87% of our internet purchases are researched online and then collected from our stores.
This ability to add further expert advice and service to our online mix gives Halfords a differentiated offer and a competitive advantage