Halfords is to fully reopen 53 stores after a successful trial of physical-distancing measures on its shop floors. The bike and car parts retailer said the reopenings follow successful tests at its Peterborough and Bristol Cribbs Causeway stores. It will be the first time Halfords customers will be allowed in store since the UK lockdown started on 23 March. Among the sites reopening are Gloucester, Huddersfield, Inverness and North Shields. A number of the stores opened over the bank holiday weekend and all 53 will be open by Friday. The distancing measures being implemented include queueing marshals outside stores, “sneeze screens” for shoppers and staff, and customers being asked not to handle or try on products. The decision comes a day after the government said most non-essential retailers could reopen from 15 June. “We are pleased to be in a position to start letting our customers back into our stores,” said Graham Stapleton, the chief executive of Halfords. “However, we are going to be reopening them to our customers gradually and cautiously in order to be absolutely certain that our colleagues and customers have a safe environment in which to work and shop.” In March, bike shops were designated an essential service under the government’s coronavirus control measures. Halfords has been operating 335 of its 446 retail shops under a “dark store” model during the lockdown, meaning customers have been unable to browse and instead have been placing orders with Halfords staff outside the front of the store. “There has been a big surge in demand for our bike products and services as people have taken to cycling during the lockdown, both for commuting and for fun,” Stapleton said. “We are anticipating a similar level of demand for our motoring products and services in the competing days, as people begin to use vehicles again that in some cases will have been off the road for many weeks.” In addition to its retail stores, Halfords has 346 of its 373 garages, and 77 vans, operating under a contactless model. Stores reopening Aintree Ashford Aylesbury Basingstoke Bedford Braintree Cambridge Chatham Chelmsford Chester Colchester Cribbs Causeway Doncaster Dundee Eastbourne Edinburgh – Straiton Exeter Fareham Frome Gloucester Hamilton Harlow Hemel Hempstead Hereford High Wycombe Huddersfield Inverness Ipswich Euro Leamington Spa Leicester, St Margarets Lincoln, Tritton Liverpool, Edge Lane Maidstone Milton Keynes New Malden Newport North Shields Norwich Peterborough Plymouth Poole Preston Sheffield, Queens Stevenage Stirling Stockport Swindon Taunton Telford Thanet Wakefield Yeovil York