Halfords: “Golden Eagle” Project
Summary
Halfords were looking to roll out the first part of a long-term plan to transform their estate, with over 450 stores involved in the project. They had two incumbent suppliers in place and felt a third was required. The Bluestones One management team had previously worked with Halfords and were a perfect fit for the retailer.
Challenges
The full store estate had to be completed before the Christmas peak trading period. Delivering a project of this size and scale in a relatively short period of time meant it was key that we worked closely with Halfords to fully understand their requirements and brief this across our teams across the UK and Ireland. The project completely “rebalanced” each store, freeing up space for key new ranges.
Results
Each of our store transformations was delivered to standard, on time and with excellent feedback across the board. We had put a plan in place from day one to upskill team members as the project progressed. This approach meant that if there was a need for Bluestones One to step in and support elsewhere, we were ready to do so and on more than one occasion did. This project is the biggest Halfords has undertaken across their estate and we were extremely proud to be a part of it.
Bluestones One Merchandising has supported several of my projects over many years, these have included new store openings, refits and range change reviews.
New Stores are delivered over 9 days with £1.5m worth of stock merchandised and priced with 99% availability. Refits are over an 8.5 week period in which Bluestones will supply a high level of merchandising on both days and nights. The level of customer service given to valued customers within my business during refits is excellent.
The support from the management team during all projects is first class, always available and willing to help. They also give the teams continued training to grow and develop the skill set of the workforce.
I would be happy to recommend Bluestones to any business wanting to use them within the retail environment.
Our experience working with Bluestones has been a positive one. From the planning stage through to the first week of the project implementation, I have found everyone from Bluestones easy to work with and very professional. The team have delivered on everything they said during the planning stage, suggested ways to overcome potential issues and provided regular updates on progress to date. Having spoken to each of the stores where work has been completed, feedback is consistently good. Professional, safe and customer friendly are regular remarks received from store colleagues. My experience to date gives me confidence in Bluestones and their ability to continue delivering against the high benchmark they have set.
Bluestones have supplied and supported Halfords with Merchandising personnel since 2017 on various projects ranging from refurbishments, relocations and range reviews. Most recently they have helped us deliver the biggest project we have ever undertaken, a space and range project across the whole estate.
Their team leaders and merchandisers that work with us, are professional, well trained with a great skill set and deliver a first-class end product.
Their management team work closely with us to ensure they always understand our requirements. They supply us with core teams to give us consistent levels of service and are a good fit in line with our development programme. This programme can be very fluid and Bluestones are very flexible and can react very quickly to any change in line with this.
What I enjoy about working for Bluestones One is the travel and the ability to work in different environments and locations throughout the UK and Ireland. There are different challenges week in, week out and lots of opportunities to meet new people. There are also great progression opportunities – I joined the merchandising division as a Team Leader and now I’m a Senior Team Leader.
