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Laura Trott (Halfords).jpgHalfords launches Laura Trott bike range
Halfords has announced the launch of a new bike range from double Olympic gold medallist Laura Trott. Trott is the fourth Olympian to launch bikes with the retailer after Bradley Wiggins, Victoria Pendleton and Chris Boardman.
Trott has created four women’s bikes – one hybrid and three road bikes – with prices starting from £449. She said the bikes had been designed to be both fast and comfortable.
“Riding bikes is my life, so it’s been a dream for me to develop my own. I want to see as many women and girls as possible to get out there on bikes – whether it’s city commuters, mums cycling to school, fitness seekers or for those who want to go all the way and compete, the bikes are tailored to women and their individual ambitions for cycling.”
Jill McDonald, Halfords CEO, said: “Laura Trott is an awe-inspiring athlete and it’s fantastic to launch this range of bikes with her in time for the Olympics as part of our biggest summer yet for women cyclists.”
Halfords like-for-like cycling revenue dipped 0.9% in the year to April with relatively poor sales seen in July and August. The firm cited a number of factors for this, including poor weather and discounting across the market. Sales did however return to growth in the second half of the year.
Parts, accessories and clothing sales declined in the year and have been earmarked as areas for improvement. McDonald, said that the recent purchase of Tredz and Wheelies would help improve the firm’s position in this area as well as strengthening the firm’s position online.
“In cycling our sales improved in the second half of the year and cycle repair delivered good growth. The recent acquisition of Tredz alongside the continued expansion of Cycle Republic and the launch of our new Laura Trott range demonstrates the strength and breadth of our cycling proposition.”
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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15 comments
Well if they provide new brands cheaply for several years, people will buy them.
Halfords are there to provide dividends to stock holders and not customer service to us or training/wages to their staff. The good staff move on. They do have good products but they need retention which is lost to other chains.
It doesn't matter what halfords launch, there stores are too confused, badly laid out and the staff are not trained properly so it will just flop. Laura Trott should put her name to better use promoting general exercise or cycling not halfords.
Could I take a wild guess that she might be getting paid for lending her name to these Halford bikes? Halfords see a market for putting known cyclists' names on bikes that they wouldn't ever use themselves, and they might well be right. The only other big chains that might be able to afford such a thing are Wiggle, Evans and Decathalon, and they have all chosen different marketing strategies.
In the meantime, I can't really blame those GB track cyclists from cashing in. It is a short career and I suspect it is only the endorsements that bring in decent cash.
I'm always a bit surprised that cyclists (well, in this country) seem to miss the boat when it comes to raking the cash in from elsewhere. I know they get cycling industry related sponsorships for but you'd think aside from stuff like signature bikes and shoes, they'd get their names to attached to all manner of crap whilst they could. Wiggins obviously isn't poor but I imagine he could have had some right deals after he won the TDF.
Then again maybe doing Virgin Broadband adverts isn't that great.
One problem Halfords has is that for a while the Boardman range was seen as a good starting point for a 'proper' bike, cycling boomed and Halfords made bank on that. People who got into it also upgraded their Boardmans. Now just go on ebay and it's flooded with them, so if you want to try out a 'proper' bike you don't need to buy it new.
Another thing I've noticed at Halfords, especially with the Carrera and Voodoo ranges is they keep the price point the same.......and then drop the specs each year. The first Voodoos were well spec'd for the prices. They're shit now.
Agreed. Presumably they're trading off the reputation of bikes like the Carrera TdF being excellent value. The new version is rubbish in comparison. I wonder if this was the plan when they were selling decentish road bikes for £250 all along.
I had a Carrera MTB as a back-up bike and it was cheap and basic in terms of equipment, but had a decent frame and was ok to ride.
I've certainly noticed a drop in the numbers of '2012'ers' that appeared in the wake of the Olympic glories, riding in my area. I'm not sure a new bike product, pitched in prime 'ride to work' territory is going to help.
I'm not sure that sales dropping *0.9%* is all that statistically significant...?
well it could be considering cycling contributes to around a 3rd of their retail sales now, and cycling is no longer expanding anywhere near as rapidly as it did 2-4 years ago for them and is possibly declining, and the sales percentages dont necessarily reflect the impact on profit it has if they had to heavily discount to boost sales. Equally they are also predicting a 3-5% increase in sales on the back of promotions like this, so yes it could be very statistically significant in years to come.
also worth noting they stated the Trott bikes will start from £449, which kind of puts them at Boardman level.
That's my impression. Not getting nearly such good prices on eBay for parts I sell these days.
Same is true of all these celebrity branded things. Boardman is the odd one out as he apparently does have some involvement, but then he's always had a reputation for being a bit of a scientist.
Call me cynical, but I bet Ms Trott didn't design the bikes.
Which might be as well, as her speciality is riding round a track very fast, and these bikes have to go on a road.
Call me cynical, but I bet Ms Trott didn't design the bikes.
Which might be as well, as her speciality is riding round a track very fast, and these bikes have to go on a road.
The same argument could be applied to Hoy bikes but that seems to be going well. Let's face it, these celebrity endorsement deals are not really aimed at wizened old goats who can spot a square taper BB at 40 paces; the bikes are aimed at those new to sport who are only too happy to hook onto a well known name as a dependable marque.