Q&A: Martin Hallsworth, Sales Director, PAC
APCOA enhances the parking experience for both clients and their customers. We help businesses get the maximum value from every space. Our USP is scale: we are Europe’s largest car park operator, but with the agility to deliver tailored solutions.
Martin Hallsworth is Sales Director at APCOA, Europe’s largest parking operator. With more than a decade of experience in UK retail and senior roles at brands including Next, ASDA, Foot Locker and Phones4U, Martin brings a first-hand understanding of the pressures facing retailers today. At APCOA, alongside its network of UK service providers, Park & Control and Gemini Parking Solutions, he focuses on helping businesses unlock the potential of their car parks through smarter technology, operational efficiency and customer-first solutions.
Can you tell us a bit about your background?
I spent over 10 years in retail with brands such as Next, ASDA, Foot Locker and Phones4U. Many of the senior positions I held, particularly at Foot Locker and Phones4U, were within high-profile shopping centres. This gave me a deep appreciation of how vital customer experience is in retail, from store operations to car park access. Later, I moved into direct sales, and that eventually led me into the car park management sector, where I can combine my retail insight with solutions that directly improve customer journeys.
What does your company do? What is your USP?
APCOA enhances the parking experience for both clients and their customers. We help businesses get the maximum value from every space. Our USP is scale: we are Europe’s largest car park operator, but with the agility to deliver tailored solutions. In the UK, through Park & Control and Gemini Parking Solutions, we provide specialist support to retail, leisure and hospitality sectors, helping them reduce operational strain, keep spaces available for genuine customers and improve overall satisfaction.
What’s special about the platform and your approach?
Our reach and expertise are unmatched, but what really sets us apart is the way we balance technology with flexibility. With our in-house Research & Development team, we are constantly innovating. We can adapt quickly to client requests, whether that’s integrating digital permits for staff, rolling out EV charging infrastructure or tailoring enforcement to protect brand reputation.
For an organisation of our scale, the ability to be so agile is rare. It means we can deliver large, complex solutions quickly, but still provide the hands-on attention a retailer expects. That combination of size and responsiveness is something our clients really value.
What advantage does it add?
For retailers, parking isn’t just about logistics – it’s about customer behaviour. Our solutions don’t just keep spaces available, they create a streamlined experience that increases the likelihood of customers walking through the door and more importantly, returning.
The data we provide is where the real competitive edge lies. Parking analytics now show far more than occupancy — they reveal patterns of customer arrivals, dwell times, repeat visits and even the impact of promotions. For example, retailers can measure how a marketing campaign translates into actual footfall by looking at vehicle entry data. This level of visibility empowers leaders to make smarter staffing decisions, align opening hours with demand, and optimise customer flow across peak trading periods.
In today’s climate, where every conversion counts, this insight can be the difference between standing still and gaining market share.
How are retailers using your systems to gain competitive advantage and what does best practice look like?
Best practice is when retailers no longer view the car park as a burden and look to embrace it as the first stage of a customer’s experience. Our systems ensure fair use, space availability for shoppers and automate the time-consuming aspects of management.
But where retailers really win is by using the insight generated. At one retail park we work with, ANPR technology revealed that genuine customers were leaving because of local commuters using the car park. By implementing a tailored solution, we not only increased space availability for genuine customers, but also saw a measurable uplift in retail sales across tenants.
Another example is around staffing: data showed that customer arrivals peaked earlier on weekends than store rotas accounted for. By adjusting staffing, the site was able to serve more customers without compromising experience, increasing in store efficiencies and revenues.
An increased number of retailers are also using our APCOA Urban Hubs solutions to develop their car park into a ‘destination’, with added last-mile transportation and delivery hubs, customers are choosing to park in the car parks for uses further than simply doing their shopping, or using a parking space. We unlock additional awareness and provide added benefits to the end customer.
This is how parking transforms from being seen as a cost centre into an enabler for growth.
What challenges and opportunities do you see in UK retail for 2026? (Enhanced)
Retailers face two big challenges right now: rising costs and changing customer expectations. Consumers are more price-sensitive, but they’re also less tolerant of friction. A poor parking experience — circling for spaces, broken payment machines, unauthorised cars blocking bays — can be the deciding factor in whether potential customers visit or go elsewhere.
The opportunity is to treat parking as part of the customer experience strategy. Those retailers who invest in seamless, tech-driven parking can remove frustration from the very first step of the journey, creating a stronger first impression and making customers more receptive once they’re in-store.
We also see a big opportunity in sustainability. Adding EV charging and futureproof systems doesn’t just provide a new service, it positions retailers as forward-thinking and aligned with customer values.
How will you address these challenges and turn them into successes?
We help retailers by optimising space availability and providing actionable data. Parking data gives leaders the confidence to make informed decisions, whether that’s adjusting staffing, redesigning the customer journey or measuring the impact of marketing campaigns.
More broadly, we are also supporting retailers in reimagining their spaces to be more experiential and customer-focused. Parking plays a quiet but critical role in that transformation.
What is on the horizon for you as a company?
We are continuing to evolve our technology, with a strong focus on digitalisation, data insights and seamless customer experiences. EV charging infrastructure is also a major area of development, and we see car parks becoming increasingly central to sustainable transport strategies.
Any final thoughts?
The retail sector is under immense pressure, but there are real opportunities to improve efficiency, customer satisfaction and loyalty. The car park is often underestimated, yet it plays a defining role in the overall experience. By working with trusted partners like APCOA, Park & Control and Gemini Parking Solutions, retailers can transform their car parks into assets that work for their customers and their bottom line.
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To find out more visit them online here or connect with them here.
