Halfords - Madison?

[Alex321]

So on Sunday, I ordered a new large chainring for my bike from Halfords, for delivery (On or before Friday 8th March). They were significantly the cheapest, given their advertised price was about the same as most places, but then with a 10% discount on cycling orders over £30, and another 8% discount from my workplace discount scheme, and free postage.

Then yesterday I get an email from DHL saying they had my parcel from MADISON CYCLES. It arrived today, and was the chainring I ordered. It also says on the label "Sendr name: Madison cycles." and their Milton Keynes address.

So is there any connection between Halfords and Madison, or did they just pass on the order because they didn't have any in stock?

 

[Cycleops]

Madison is a large and well established distributor of cycles and parts. Halfords is the largest cycle retailer and I expect can demand certain terms and concessions from their suppliers. Asking Madison to send direct to their customer saves them money and time.

 

[bonzobanana]

Madison cycles are likely the official importer and Halfords didn't have it in stock so I guess it ended up being a sort of dropshipping arrangement. The fact that it is from Madison means you have official stock not some knock off from Aliexpress so its a positive sign for Halfords as well. Halfords import a lot of bikes so could easily import components through non official channels. There was a debate about chains on hotukdeals and I was scratching my head for places to buy chains that are genuinely from the correct factories with many low quality knock off chains on ebay, Amazon and aliexpress and I felt Halfords were one of the few safe options that were surely to be genuine and still reasonably priced. I guess Tredz would be another as part of Halfords. There are a lot of grey imports about and a percentage of those will be knock off inferior products.

 

[presta]

Madison's the sole UK importer of Shimano, so if you're buying from a UK trader it all comes from them one way or another. When I bought my front mech in 2007 I had to go to Roseversand in Germany because it wasn't a model that Madison imported to the UK (although it now is).

I saved about a third off the cost of a complete new transmission by buying from Roseversand at that time, so I'm guessing that nobody has a monopoly over Shimano distribution on the continent.

 

[Alex321]

Madison's the sole UK importer of Shimano, so if you're buying from a UK trader it all comes from them one way or another. When I bought my front mech in 2007 I had to go to Roseversand in Germany because it wasn't a model that Madison imported to the UK (although it now is).

I saved about a third off the cost of a complete new transmission by buying from Roseversand at that time, so I'm guessing that nobody has a monopoly over Shimano distribution on the continent.

That makes snense, though I'm slightly surprised it is allowed, under competition rules.

 

[presta]

That makes snense, though I'm slightly surprised it is allowed, under competition rules.

I think it's quite common, at work I came across manufacturers who wouldn't talk to us directly and insisted that we went via their distributor.

 

[andyb1]

Madison have their finger in a lot of cycling pies - Genesis, Ridgeback, Shimano to name but a few - but seem to sell via dealers rather than direct so they are not a known name.
I had a problem with the frame of a bike that was imported by Madison and the dealer was really tied to the solution they offered, probably because most of the gear that the dealer sold came from them.

 

[andyb1]

Inaccuracy in my post above - from their web site, Madison are part of the H.Young Group and now seem to concentrate on importing just accessories and parts while the H.Young Group import the bikes. Still a bit worrying when so many brands like Mavic, Park Tool, DT Swiss all come through one importer, although at least they are unlikely to intentionally import grey products.

 

[Cycleops]

I don't know why you think it's worrying @andyb1 , Madison have been around for yonks. The big names want to go with them because they know they are financially secure unlike some distributors that have gone t**s up recently during the down turn in the trade.

 

[alicat]

It's called drop shipping. Halfords don't keep items from Madison in their own warehouse. You place an order with Halfords, they place an identical order with Madison for slightly less money and tell Madison to deliver the product to you. If you have any problems your contract is with Halfords but they never actually see the product. Saves the product doing an extra journey and Halfords make money.

 

[andyb1]

Why is it worrying when so many cycling brands go through one UK importer?
- as I said above, I felt that the dealer who sold me the bike that had problems was not able to help me to get a better resolution incase they damaged their business relationship with Madison, whom they relied on to supply them with a wide range of parts.
- having one importer handling so many brands can give a lot of problems if they do go bankrupt.
- how do they handle similar products from competing brands?
- a potential risk of a monopoly on what is imported and prices.
- if an importer works with fewer brands they will know each product better.
BTW, on their website Madison claim to import 70 different cycling brands…….

 

[Supersuperleeds]

Lots of the big retailers are doing this now, if you want them to sell your product they insist it goes on the website first and that you fulfil all orders, that way the retailer takes no stock risk and gets the margin without any work other than loading the product onto the website.

If they see a product selling well they may then look at taking it in store.

B&Q are terrible for doing this.

 

[richardfm]

Lots of the big retailers are doing this now, if you want them to sell your product they insist it goes on the website first and that you fulfil all orders, that way the retailer takes no stock risk and gets the margin without any work other than loading the product onto the website.

If they see a product selling well they may then look at taking it in store.

B&Q are terrible for doing this.

The B&Q situation is different. There are many items on their website that are not only shipped by a third party, but sold by the third party as well. When this is the case it is clearly stated.
What is terrible about it?

 

[biggs682]

I think it's quite common, at work I came across manufacturers who wouldn't talk to us directly and insisted that we went via their distributor.

Yes we get the same loads

 

[Robxxx7]

https://www.freewheel.co.uk I believe this is the retail arm of Maddison as well .. so you can go direct