Halfords Group plc, a UK provider of motoring and cycling products and services, announced that Bridgestone has acquired a 5% stake in its automotive software as a service (SaaS) business, Avayler, valuing the business that was launched in July 2021, at over $60m. The commercial agreement will allow Bridgestone to leverage Avayler’s products in retail stores and mobile applications.
The Avayler SaaS solution was developed in-house by Halfords to manage automotive services across its expansive garage network and an increasing number of mobile vans. It offers a completely integrated solution that allows automotive companies operating in multiple locations to develop a competitive edge by delivering a better customer experience, Halfords said.
As well as streamlining customer bookings – online, over the phone and in-store – and job execution inside the garage, its mobile capability uses algorithms to instantly calculate the available customer time slots according to the nearest van location and parts availability.
The Avayler platform uses dynamic pricing to value those slots accurately. Automotive service providers can calculate the cheapest and quickest routes to a customer; maximize colleague productivity on the job; give details of traffic on the road; and provide a colleague with detailed checklists to ensure a safe and consistent service is provided. Customers can even track the location and ETA of their service delivery, Halfords said.
This Bridgestone investment in Avayler comes after a period of rapid growth, according to Halfords. Its first customer was American Tire Distributors Inc., one of the largest independent suppliers of tires to the replacement tire market in North America. Since then, Avayler has won a number of contracts with operators around the globe, including Tirebuyer in the U.S. and Mobivia in Central Europe.
“The Bridgestone investment in Avayler is an important endorsement by one of the world’s largest automotive businesses. With Avayler a little over two years old, Bridgestone’s investment at this stage is testimony to their confidence in the business and the strength of Avayler’s ground-breaking solution to allow automotive companies to offer completely integrated on and off-site support to customers,” said Graham Stapleton, CEO of Halfords. “As well as becoming a shareholder in Avayler, Bridgestone will also deploy Avayler solutions to support its own mobility solutions and applications for drivers, fleet managers and vehicle owners.”
