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Cycle Republic Shop frontHalfords to open chain of bike-only shops in central London
Car accessories and bikes chain Halfords is set to open a series of bike-only stores in Central London, with the first one opening later this year.
Wander round the shopping streets of central London and one High Street chain you won't spot among the Maplins, Sainsbury's Locals and Gaps is Halfords. The car accessories and bikes chain may account for about 25 percent of the British bike market, but its presence in the capital is limited to a handful of stores in the inner suburbs.
Not for much longer. Halfords has today announced that it plans to open a chain of bike-only stores in central London, under the name Cycle Republic.
Halfords has undergone a dramatic turnaround since CEO Matt Davies arrived from Pets At Home in October 2012. Halfords reported a 21.3% increase in its first quarter like-for-like sales this year including a 35.1% increase in premium bike sales
Davies told the Evening Standard's Simon Neville: “For me it was very, very clear that there was a huge gap in Halford’s ability to penetrate Central London. We penetrate most of the country really well, but there’s a whole market in central London we’re missing out on.”
The first Cycle Republic will open at Euston Tower in the next few months. Halfords says the stores will offer exclusive premium editions, an extensive range of parts, accessories and clothing, aiming to cater for cyclists in the busiest commuter areas.
Halfords acquired Boardman Bikes earlier this year, and recently announced its own high-end range, 13 Bikes. Both will be represented in the new shops, along with a full range of female-specific bikes and accessories.
Davies said: “[The new chain] is aimed at commuters and people who have a passion for cycling.”
Taking a magnifying glass to the storefront shot Halfords has circulated with its announcement of Cycle Republic reveals something interesting: a 7am opening time during the week. We just hope they'll be offering coffee too if they hope to get any sense out of us at that time in the morning.
This isn't Halfords' first foray into bike-only stores. The BikeHut store-in-a-store concept spawned a few standalone stores, and the Cycle Republic name comes from a 2008 experiment with a non-corporate look for some shops. However the Halfords of the time struggled with marketing ideas more sophisticated than "33% OFF!" and the recession hit Halfords hard; those stores were closed or rebranded in 2009.
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
Latest Comments
- Patrick9-32 5 min 23 sec ago
Ask the reasonable ones, tell the unreasonable ones through peoper enforcement.
- brooksby 12 min 35 sec ago
I wonder how they are objectively defining "causing public offence"? Seems to me likely that their Enforcement Officers will simply tell all...
- ubercurmudgeon 12 min 42 sec ago
It is very easy to make an e-bike look like an aero-bike if you only post side-on views. Take a photo from anything other than precisely 90 degrees...
- OnYerBike 13 min 35 sec ago
No - as per the article, the setting allow you to receive messages from 'Following,' 'Mutuals' or 'No One' - i.e. at the very least, you have to...
- Rendel Harris 23 min 13 sec ago
Quite, sounds like not very much but a 25% improvement is pretty massive: if the world marathon record had undergone a similar change since 1968...
- bigwheeler88 30 min 16 sec ago
If only the pig policeman had been close passed while on the bike. Then maybe they'd finally understand and appreciate what we go through every day.
- Paul J 30 min 19 sec ago
Holy crap at that shirt! My eyeballs are bleeding AND I'm going to have nightmares!
- bigwheeler88 31 min 58 sec ago
Utter moron. Cyclists have the right to be in the middle of the lane, as they should be. Other road users (we're talking cars here) have the duty...
- chrisonatrike 53 min 35 sec ago
25mph cruise speed? Sounds like Nigel's celebrated courtesy and politeness finally reached breaking point...
- Jigzy99 1 hour 7 min ago
Have you tried the local press? They love a good 'police not doing their job' story. May just kick them into action.
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25 comments
I have been in the store in Euston. I found it to be very clean. The staff are cheerful and well informed. They have an extensive range of bikes and bike products.
Seems like if you are in central London it is probably a great place to go and look at pedal power.
Click'n'collect = brilliant
Evening opening hours = brilliant
Open on a Sunday = brilliant
Boardman bikes = brilliant
The quality of servicing is about as variable as it is in my three LBS's which is why I've learned to do it all myself, often with parts bought from Halfords.
A few months back I got a pair of Campagnolo Eurus from Halfords for £440 delivered (cheapest I could find at the time, even now). I've used click and collect quite a few times in the past. A couple of times I didn't get a confirmation that the items were available for collection, but most times it wasn't a problem.
I don't need them to be an expert, because I already know my bike inside and out. There isn't anything mechanically that I don't know how to do, and I have all the tools needed. So I guess it's obviously not aimed at someone like me.
If they get good mechanics and keep them up to date on the latest trends and cycle tech I don't see why they can't be a success.
I don't mind forgetting about the halfords of old I'd visit with my pennies as a kid to buy things like crank cotter pins
Halfords ran the mechanical support on the Deloitte Ride Across Britain and they were brilliant. Working all hours from a gazebo in a field under immense pressure to get broken bikes repaired for 6am so the customers could continue their ride and they delivered every time.
The mechanic work now is top notch - maybe not at all stores all the time but they've improved massively. I'm guessing that at a more cycle-oriented store like these appear to be, they'd have far better support too, not the stereotype of some kid building a bike because he happens not be to selling car radios at that moment...
Cleaning - works brilliantly. Good for squirting down cable outers too to flush out the crap.
I guess it's horses for courses. Proper cyclists with proper nice bikes would not been seen dead in Halfords.
Using GT85 on a bike ……… for what?????
Well, fuck me gently, I must have the same powers as the kid from The Sixth Sense.
Either that or you've made a ludicrously snobbish comment not really based on reality.
Couple of people praising "click and collect". Don't know where they live but it doesn't work like that here! I've even had emails telling me that my item is ready to collect, so I detour on my way home to ride through the ugly retail/industrial park where halfords is, only to be told that it isn'tactually there because the Raleigh llorry didn't make it as far as them today... so why did they email me???
I wouldn't trust them with mechanics. From local club anecdotes, I think there's one mechanic who knows his stuff and 2 or 3 that don't.
I use click and collect from two different London stores, as I'm more or less between them and I regularly head both ways. I've never had a problem, and always get a call from a staff member in the store when the item has been delivered.
With PocketHighStreet you can also use click & collect for independent bike shops in london too.......!!
See links below.
Choose from over 50, 000 products & 150 LBS in London!
Hi,
PocketHighStreet is a new click & collect service for over 150 INDEPENDENT bike shops in London.
No issues with lorry deliveries - the items on the app are in stock & ready to collect!!
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Check it out.
Cheers.
Will the new chain offer test rides? Or do they still expect people to buy £1000+ bikes based on looks (or, if you're lucky, a ride on the turbo or around the store!)
Still wouldn't use them. When Hellspawn gets things wrong (yes they do) the staff are as useless as there head office.
They give me chest pains.
Maybe you need to see a specialist.
Halfords is ok for tubes, tyres and general stuff like locks and lights. I bought the first two bikes my sons had from there and after they grew out of them they were passed on to friends and are still going strong.
When possible I'd rather give my money to a small business than a large company with annual revenues approaching £1billion.
Do you buy your groceries at the independent corner shop then ... rather than those big supermarkets?
You can tell someone's really posh when they call it "Hallfuds".
"Euston Tower" and premium products - does this mean that I'll end up coming home with new kit hidden from the missus in my laptop bag every time I take the train to London for work? A half-hour wait for a train could prove dangerous!
I suppose the CEO has a point though - Halfords is always on big out-of-town retail parks due to the requirements for a big shed and a load of car parking. Not really easy to find in central London.
I do like the look of the storefront way better than Halfords. Add decent staff/service and I might entertain it.
To be fair the guy, Dan, at the Hinckley Halfords knows more than most LBS folks about cycling and cycle mechanics and the bloke at the Loughborough store was amazing in my friends time of need when we were stranded.
I think the days of spotty students working there who don't know their arse from their elbow when it comes to bikes are long past now!
You must work for Halfords!
This seems a sensible move, Halfords are always going to struggle to attract a more "discerning" customer all the while the name remains synonymous with cheap alloy wheels and over-loud car stereos.
The only thing I use Halfrauds for is GT85.
Well, perhaps you should consider using them a little more than that. I've ordered replacement components from them online, for which I've often found them as cheap or cheaper than the online retailers. But unlike the online only retailers, I can collect them from the store at my convenience rather than wait at home.
Their main weakness is their poor reputation for bike servicing, but for those of us that do most of that ourselves, they can be convenient way to source parts locally.
Actually, that sounds a little like the reputation of the old car focused Halfords amongst drivers.
I use Halfords all the time in a similar fashion, the range of parts and accessories online is extensive and most of it can be picked up instore for no charge the next day. Much easier and more convenient for me than deliveries as I have a halfords about 1/2 mile off my usual commuter run.
Some of the own brand kit is surprising good now as well. I have used a pair of the basic bikehut SPD shoes for the last two years and they are still going strong.
I used to use that stuff until I discovered better lube that didn't wash off in the first wet mile (Finish Line's wet lube sticks brilliantly and works out very good value). But if you want cheap GT85, Aldi is flogging it on Thursday - http://is.gd/aE5Ucf (so long as you're over 18, sonny!).
Agree with some other posters that some of Halfords online offer is good value and quality these days, and store collection option is a bonus.
"Passion for cycling" is a very throwaway term. I am passionate about my particular type of cycling, but I doubt I'd use these guys knowing they are Halfords backed, in the same way I wouldn't have a coffee in Harris & Hoole in Tesco's Romford.