Anyone fancy Halfords shares?

atush

Funnily enough I needed to go to Halfords. I don't tend to trust ebay and I needed the stuff in the next week so couldn't go to Amazon.

I agree, I don't like ebay much. Have had too many problems when buying as a %- not all but some. Much better experience with Amazon (incl their marketplace sellers) than with ebay.

My ebay % good experience is better when I buy in the USA, but UK sellers- not so much.

gadgetmind

As a counterpoint, I've had only a few (<6) issues in over 700 ebay trades, and all of these issues were addressed.

calypso_rhapsody

atush - try http://www.roofbox.co.uk/!

ruperts

Halfords seem like the next HMV to me. They are competing against the internet though perhaps not quite as strongly. I think HMV went down faster because their customer base is the younger generation who were quicker to move online. Maybe Halfords have got a lot of loyal older customers. I can't see that lasting too long because they charge high prices for products which you can get much cheaper online. Their stores are not great, their staff underpaid and undertrained and in my experience their products tend to be on the shoddy side. I just can't see any reason for their retail business to last any more than another couple of years at most.

bowlhead99

I think the convenience factor of a bricks-and-mortar store is something of a defence against the growing internet competition - if it's a maintenance item like a new battery, brake light, windscreen wiper blades etc, you dont necessarily want to wait around for Amazon /Ebay, nor can a car battery fit through your letterbox when you're out at work.

And although for years you've been able to buy new tyres online much more cheaply than through Halfords or Kwik-Fit, most people would still need someone to fit and balance them, so they just ignore the internet, drive there, and get it done at whatever the going rate is.

Then physically being in the store for those things will lead people to willingly make high-margin, less time-critical purchases on things that they could have bought cheaper elsewhere on or offline if they planned better - some car shampoo, a tax disc holder, a set of car mats, a satnav.

Also many Halfords are at retail parks or places with great parking, easy to drop in for a chamois and some screenwash rather than saving a quid at Poundland on the high street. A lot of people don't use the high street these days.

So competition from internet and supermarkets and poundland would hurt but not kill them, specialist retail can have a place. I think the major problem they have is that cars are getting less user-serviceable with longer service intervals, and people are getting more affluent (or have delusions of affluence) so don't want to do their own car maintenance.

In the 80s and early90s you would just buy a Haynes manual, clean the gunk out of your carburettor yourself, change the oil and the brake pads while you were at it. I'm sure people in places more third-worldy still do.
But carburettors were replaced with more complex fuel injection systems 20 years ago, and everything now has microchips and diagnostic modules, with only a couple of fluid top-up points under the bonnet. Can teenagers learn how to fix/tune their engines on their new hybrid by asking their grandad and buying their own parts? No way. They would just research it on the internet and buy a chip. As for other maintenance items- let the garage deal with it when it goes in for a service.

The complexity of modern vehicles would be a positive development for an autocentre business (if service intervals were not extending, as they are), but not the huge DIY-parts-retail store attached. And if you don't want the parts, you won't be buying all the accessories and fun stuff on the side, because you can get that from amazon,ebay, poundland, tesco extra, etc.

If somewhere like Mothercare can go down, when babymaking is still pretty popular, a company with declining revenues in the car parts retail sector is not a safe bet.

High yields are great if low risk, but here what the maths is telling you is that most people would not pay many times the current year payout to buy a piece of this company.

Haichie

My two pennies worth is that I have shorted them since they were 4.70ish on and off ( through I closed out a few weeks ago ).

Still don't believe they are worth 481.95M- over priced - look at the debt.. and I find divi ( even through I don't trade/invest for divis ) high- also share buy backs mmmmm... last company I watched doing this was Betfair and that share buy back didn't really help its price.

Obviously that's just my thoughts ! :A

Glen_Clark

bowlhead99 wrote: »

And although for years you've been able to buy new tyres online much more cheaply than through Halfords or Kwik-Fit, most people would still need someone to fit and balance them, so they just ignore the internet, drive there, and get it done at whatever the going rate is.
.

Buy you tyres online (eg. National Tyres website) then go to National Tyres premises to have them fitted. If you go straight to their premises without buying them online first they charge you more. (You also run the risk they don't have them in stock).

gadgetmind

Glen_Clark wrote: »

Buy you tyres online (eg. National Tyres website) then go to National Tyres premises to have them fitted.

I just call my local indie tyre fitter, tell them the best online price (inc delivery) I've found, and they do the job for that price. At almost £300 a corner, it's worth the effort!