FREE CYCLE SAFETY CHECKS AT HALFORDS

Halfords is backing Cycle To Work Day (Thursday 12th September) by offering a bike free safety check at its Bikehut stores.

Customers visiting the store on the day will also receive a FREE bike safety checks, a FREE puncture repair kit and 20% off selected cycle accessories.

Cycle To Work day has been launched to encourage more people to get on their bikes to travel to their place of employment.

Halfords runs its own tax efficient Cycle2Work scheme which offers employees 42% off the cost of a new bike, saving hundreds of pounds.

The Cycle to Work Alliance, the umbrella group promoting the Cycle to Work scheme, report a 25% increase in uptake in the past year with 44,000 people signing up in the first six months of 2013 as the UK bike boom, buoyed by Sir Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome’s triumphs, continues.

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Notes to Editors:

The cycle to work initiative is a tax-efficient, and on the whole, salary-sacrificed employee benefit that provides a way of encouraging more adults to take up cycling. Introduced in the 1999 Finance Act, the scheme encourages employers to loan bicycles and cycling safety equipment to employees as a tax-exempt benefit for the purpose of cycling to work. Under the scheme, employers buy cycling equipment from suppliers approved by their scheme administrator, and hire it to their employees whom are able to access savings of up to 42% off the price of the bike. At the end of the loan period, the employer may choose to give the employee the option to purchase the equipment.

For further information about Halfords Cycle to Work Scheme click on www.cycle2work.info

The Group is the UK's leading retailer of automotive, leisure and cycling products and through Halfords Autocentres also one of the UK's leading independent car servicing and repair operator. Halfords customers shop at 467 stores in the UK and Republic of Ireland and at halfords.com for pick-up at their local store or direct home delivery. Halfords Autocentres operates from around 290 sites nationally and offers motorists dealership-quality MOTs, repairs and car servicing at affordable prices.

Halfords employs approximately 12,000 colleagues and sells around 10,000 product lines in stores, increasing to around 30,000 lines online. The product offering encompasses significant ranges in car parts, cycles, in-car technology, child seats, roof boxes, outdoor leisure and camping equipment. Halfords own brands include Apollo and Carrera cycles, augmented by exclusive UK distribution rights for the premium-ranged Boardman cycles and accessories. In outdoor leisure, we sell a premium range of camping equipment including brands such as Outwell. Halfords offers customers expert advice and a fitting service called "wefit" for car parts, child seats, satellite navigation and in-car entertainment systems, and a "werepair" service for cycles.