Our commitment to ESG is reflected in the actions we take across our business and communities. The case studies below highlight some of the positive environmental, social and governance initiatives we have delivered, demonstrating how we are turning our ESG commitments into meaningful outcomes.
Latest case studies
Creating faster bike assembly in stores through reduced packaging
More sustainable design is helping to optimise our business by increasing efficiency for colleagues and customers.
Teams from across our business have worked together to significantly reduce packaging – particularly plastic – and make our bikes quicker and easier to build. The first redesigned kids bike models feature 83% less plastic packaging, improved assembly creating an average build time reduction of 28%, and tool-free accessory fitting.
Investing in our equipment and people to deliver fuel efficiency for our customers
These investments show how value for our customers and sustainability benefits can be achieved together.
Our garage teams have been delivering enhancements to our tyre pressure monitoring and wheel alignment services which has generated strong financial results, savings for our customers and environmental benefits.
Correctly aligned wheels reduce rolling resistance, helping to improve fuel efficiency by up to 7% and cut associated carbon emissions, while also extending tyre life.
Suitably inflated tyres are not only safer but can also create a fuel saving of 3% for an average driver, saving our customers money as well as reducing their vehicle emissions.
Committing to the long-term renewal of the automotive workforce
Our new training academy will enhance our automotive apprenticeship programme which supports around 300 apprentices across England, Scotland and Wales.
The Dunstable centre has been developed to expand high-quality training capacity, particularly for London and the South East, and to strengthen the link between technical learning and practical workplace experience.
As our sector evolves, the role of the technician is becoming ever more skilled and technical, particularly with the growth of electric vehicles, advanced diagnostics and digitally enabled servicing. This shift is helping to create new opportunities for a diverse group of young people to challenge outdated perceptions of careers in the automotive sector.
Previous case studies
We are proud this year to have launched an industry-first lithium powered technology in our Halfords Mobile Expert van fleet.
This cutting-edge technology virtually eliminates engine idling while significantly reducing CO2 emissions, noxious gases, and fuel consumption compared to conventional systems. This innovative investment in our fleet is the beginning of a phased roll-out and is an important step towards meeting our net zero targets and enhancing our operational sustainability
30%
average reduction in fuel consumption
Our recycling partnerships have led to a 60% increase in wiper blades collected by Halfords for recycling this year.
The wiper blades will be processed with over 70% recycling rates, and the remaining material captured for incineration with energy recovery. This is an improvement on the previous process where wiper blades were placed in general waste. We will be continuing to expand this programme with a focus on a broader range of high volume motoring products in FY26.
This year, we have also developed our recycling programme to capture inner tubes. We have collected 160,000 inner tubes, and are working with Schwalbe Tyres UK, our manufacturing partner, to put these materials back into the manufacturing process. This creates a circular use of material and is a significant step forward from previous processes where the tubes were placed in general waste.
500,000
wiper blades
160,000
inner tubes
We were delighted to see Karen Bellairs, Managing Director for Garages, join the ‘Automotive 30% Club’ as a Patron Member this year.
Joining the Automotive 30% Club as a gold member means we have committed to supporting initiatives aimed at increasing the representation of women in leadership roles to 30% by 2030 in the automotive industry. This was a proud moment for our business and supports our commitments to female representation and creating a more inclusive workplace where women can thrive and advance in a sector where they have been historically underrepresented
We partnered with a leading sustainable charity organisation, Sustrans, who surveyed over 1,000 children across the UK to better understand the barriers preventing them and their families from travelling actively
We want to combat declining numbers of children cycling and increase the opportunities for children to learn important life skills and have access to cycling's physical and mental health benefits
We hope the findings identified in the Children’s Walking and Cycling Index will be timely support for transport decisionmakers to influence future policy, during a time where the UK cycling and walking investment strategy is being updated.
51%
of children want to cycle more
81%
of children want more traffic-free routes for walking and cycling
Halfords is strategically monitoring and investing in its Emobility servicing capabilities across its retail and garage locations. As the UK’s leading destination for the servicing of Electric Cars, Vans, Bikes and Scooters, we are uniquely placed to capitalise on the emerging Electrification market.
We have invested in diagnostic software and equipment for the majority of consumer garages and in our retail stores (for two wheel Emobility). This has been furthered by investment in colleagues through training academies approved by the Institute of Motor Industry (IMI).
We recognise the importance of supply-chain collaboration as we cannot achieve scope 3 emission reduction without our partners. We have focused on developing the carbon reporting maturity of our high-materiality emission suppliers (such as Bikes, Metal storage, Oils, Batteries). We adjusted our procurement process to integrate Carbon emission reporting requirements as a necessary factor to win our business in recent tenders. We have built a collaborative multi-year partnership with Carbon Trust who have provided excellent support in enabling us to Promise, Plan, Progress and Publish our Net zero programme.
Not only is supplier engagement essential for net zero but also as part of our Responsible Sourcing programme, ensuring we are monitoring, auditing and reviewing our suppliers sustainability maturity, particularly those either in higher risk and large spend. The partnership with EcoVadis has been an important part of this process, however, we have also made progress in our buying teams knowledge base. We’ve worked hard to train and support our teams to feel confident and comfortable in conversation on sustainability topics and these stronger relationships will help our whole ESG programme over time.
We have been working with two automotive charities, First Step Trust (“FST”) and more recently with the Palmer Foundation. Both charities specialise in supporting people that through various personal difficulties may not have had the opportunity to gain employment. In June 2022, our relationship with FST benefited one of their learners who became a full-time Fitter at our Woolwich Autocentre. The Palmer Foundation, led by former Aston Martin CEO and Nissan COO, Dr Andy Palmer, aims to offer apprenticeships to young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, by working with employers to ensure they get the support the need throughout their career.
In creating the Future Automotive Skills Training (FAST) programme, we have brought these two charities together, along with London Southeast College group and the Institute of the Motor Industry, to provide a pathway to those who ordinarily, would have been left out of worthwhile employment, and certainly with no hope of a meaningful career. Using cutting edge learning platforms such as Virtual Reality, we are developing innovative new ways for people to engage in learning, who otherwise could not. The project aims to place between 10 and 20 young people in our Autocentres this year, with the aim of them becoming full time Halfords colleagues. By developing this innovative way of recruiting new talent, we are creating opportunity for people from more diverse backgrounds, helping to develop more inclusive teams and ensuring that our garages represent the communities that they serve.
We are proud to support Ronnie Wilson MBE and First Step Trust (“FST”) who are delivering skills for work in the motoring industry with the use of digital technology. FST provides a safe learning space that enables learners who live with various mental health conditions, anxiety, and/or low literacy capability to develop confidence, skills, and competence in a practical workplace environment.
The training, which has been developed by FST with support from Halfords, incorporates VR (virtual reality), video, AI (artificial intelligence) and other vocational technologies to enable members to learn new skills, despite the challenges they may face processing written instructions. We have started to run trial placements in our garages for members who have learnt skills through FST and are committed to working further to make training accessible to all.
The conflict and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine this year was deeply shocking, and both directly and indirectly affected many of our colleagues, partners and customers. We wanted to support the people of Ukraine and help them get access to some of the basic needs, such as medical support, food and shelter. We did this by making a donation of £50,000 to the Disasters Emergency Committee (“DEC”) Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.
Our colleagues also wanted to help through fundraising within their local communities and so we pledged to match colleague fundraising for the DEC Appeal.
As One Halfords Family, we continue to stress the importance of wellbeing and mental health to our colleagues and partners and have mental health first aiders to support as required. As the crisis in Ukraine rages on, we will continue to do all that we can to support colleagues impacted by the crisis.
We were pleased to support our colleagues globally through the pandemic by donating to The Hope Foundation in Kolkata with a £100,000 donation. Our donation covered the full running costs of the COVID-19 emergency hospital for two months, along with facilitating the purchase of much-needed PPE and sanitiser. This aligned with our One Halfords Family value – supporting the communities in which we live and work. We continue to send good wishes to our colleagues and their families in Kolkata.
We were pleased to support the Freewheel programme by Ride for Freedom with bike accessories. Ride for Freedom aim to harness the universal appeal of cycling to raise awareness, educate and forge partnerships to end modern slavery and provide remedy to survivors.
Freewheel is a remediation programme that empowers survivors of modern slavery – women, children and men – to cycle to support their physical and mental health and wellbeing, independence and mobility to aid their rehabilitation into society. The Barking and Dagenham hub, launched in March 2022, is the first of several hubs to be rolled out in cities and regions across the UK where the need and ongoing demand for the provision and service is identified.
The hubs intend to enable survivors of modern slavery by providing them with a bike and bike accessories including helmets, locks and lights, alongside cycling proficiency and road awareness training through a national cycle training programme.
In 2021, we launched a brand new Electric Hub on our website designed by in-house experts to educate customers and provide support and advice for those looking to make the switch to electric.
Covering EVs, E-bikes and E-scooters, consumers can navigate around the site educating themselves on topics such as the advantages of electric mobility, maintenance tips, and the environmental benefits, as well as getting answers to common misconceptions about electric mobility such as charging or reliability.
We have also created bespoke calculators to show customers the associated costs of switching to electric; for instance, comparing the cost of an electric vehicle vs. a traditional combustion engine, over the life of the car, dispelling the myth that electric is always more expensive. We also provide customers with advice and help on purchasing electric bikes and scooters, such as through our Cycle2Work scheme or with finance options to spread the cost of their purchase.
We are uniquely positioned in the UK to help support customers on their electric journey and we are continually investing in our colleagues and capabilities to drive awareness of the benefits of electric mobility and to make electric travel accessible to everyone.
Since 2013, Halfords has partnered with Re-Cycle to collect donated bikes and send them to rural Africa. To date, Halfords has gathered over 100,000 bikes that would otherwise have ended up in landfills. With over 70 Halfords drop-off locations nationwide, we are now more than ever encouraging our customers to donate their used bikes when they decide to purchase a new one.
The customer bikes, once they are dropped off at store will be consolidated at our HQ, where they’re sent on to our charity partner whose volunteers scavenge all the useful parts and create an inventory to be applied to suitable bikes. These bikes are efficiently packed into shipping containers and sent to African communities who use the bikes for the benefit of local communities; whether that’s transporting vital commodities like water, or enabling young children to travel to school.
For those materials that aren’t sent to Africa (i.e. smaller childrens bikes, the materials are sold to local communities to raise money for the charity to fund the containers) or the materials are collected by a recycling company. We are really proud of this partnership!
The Halfords Academy at HMP Drake Hall was launched a number of years ago and it is a scheme which we remain firmly committed to.
It offers participants the opportunity to train as cycle mechanics and create the prospect of steady employment upon release. The programme is tailored for each participant with an added focus on mechanics, customer services or retail.
Since launch, the Halfords Academy has been a great success and although COVID-19 meant the programme had to pause, we have resumed training, and are currently training twelve female offenders. Twenty graduates have joined the business in a variety of roles following their release. Fully supported by Halfords colleagues, participants are subject to the same high standards of training as other colleagues within the Group – the training programme is thorough, designed to challenge participants and raise aspirations. The programme provides offenders with the opportunity to be trained and work on bikes that require reconditioning.
The majority of the bikes are then donated to primary schools in disadvantaged areas to help children access cycling through the Halfords school bike donation scheme.
We aim to offer first-stage interviews to service leavers and reservists for all roles where candidates meet the minimum requirements.
We also support service leavers and reservists by recruiting through the Career Transition Partnership, offering ten days additional unpaid leave for reservists and a range of discounts for those serving in the Armed Forces. As a result, we are now a Silver Level employer in the MOD’s Employer Recognition Scheme, and were also nominated for The Sun’s Military Awards, which are known as the ‘Millies’.
Since signing up to the Armed Forces Covenant, Halfords is proud to have recruited 78 ex-services personnel into a variety of stores and garages roles.