Halfords is rolling out its smaller store format across the UK in parallel with its traditional superstores.
Under the retailer's new property strategy, formulated at the time of its flotation in June, it plans 150 store openings, 70 of which will be superstores and 80 the new Metro format.
Halfords head of property Richard Nixon said the approach 'forms part of a project to establish the best types of Halfords for market towns and city centres'. He said the Metro branding would be applied to city centre and suburban locations.
The first of Halfords' small-format stores to open was at Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, where a 6,400 sq ft (595 sq m) unit at 44/54 North Street was taken through the assignment of a 10-year lease expiring in March 2009. The passing rent of£42,500 a year is subject to review.
In Wells, Somerset, a 4,305 sq ft (400 sq m) former motorcycle showroom at the junction of Burcott Road and Westcott Road has been taken again via a lease assignment.
A small premium was paid for the 25-year lease from February 1999 at a passing rent of£36,000 a year.
In Newcastle-upon-Tyne, a Metro store has opened at the Newgate shopping centre, where a 5,500 sq ft (510 sq m) unit has been taken on a 10-year lease at£95,000 a year, after a 12-month rent-free period.
At the same time, sites have been secured for new superstores at the Riverside retail park at Coleraine, Northern Ireland; the Euro retail park at Ipswich, Suffolk; and the Kingston retail park in Newcastle. Superstores at Hedge End, Southampton and Newmarket Road, Cambridge, have been relocated.
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