Industry Retail Parent Rapid Group Holdings Founded 1971 | Number of locations Liverpool Headquarters Liverpool Number of employees 100 | |
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Key people Kim-Marie Doherty, Daniel Doherty and Martin Doherty Products DIY
Home improvement tools
Gardening supplies and plants | ||
Rapid discount outlet s tour of the store
Rapid Discount Outlet, formally known as Rapid Hardware, is a Liverpool local DIY and home improvement retailing company. The company is run by Martin Doherty and Daniel Doherty (directors) since it opened;
Contents
- Rapid discount outlet s tour of the store
- Rapid discount outlet s christmas department tour 2
- 1971 to 2010
- 2013 Closure
- 2013 Reopen and restructure
- 2016 Web success
- References
The store has featured on the hit BBC TV seriesThe Apprentice.
Rapid discount outlet s christmas department tour 2
1971 to 2010
Rapid Hardware was opened in 1971 with one small store on Renshaw Street by its founder Hugh Doherty, and grew to over 200,000 sq ft of retail selling space employing over 300 friendly people. In 2009 Rapid featured on the popularBBC TV Series The ApprenticeAll the candidates from the series had to pitch their ideas to store managers.
In 2010 the retailer relocated to the former George Henry Lee store right in the heart of Liverpool City Centre, this was due to extensive growth of the company. In the new building Rapid greatly expanded its product range to include home and garden, kitchens, lighting, bathrooms, indoor and outdoor furniture and homeware and hardware products, and changed its name to Rapid Discount Outlet, sourcing massive deals and huge discounts from famous manufacturers and passing them onto their ever-growing customer base. The new building is spread over 5 floors totalling some 140.000 sq ft of pure bargain heaven, it also has a 200-seater café so very popular with its customers and is a regular meeting spot for friends and family to gather and socialise while enjoying their favourite foods in air conditioned comfort.
2013 Closure
In February 2013 Rapid hardware went into administration, the administration was handled by "Duff & Phelps" who sent a letter to employees 9 February 2013 informing them about their redundancy. When the company went into administration it owed £2.97m
2013 Reopen and restructure
The store re-opened in the same premises and renamed the company to Rapid Discount Outlet in May 2013. The company gave most of its former employees their jobs back.
2016 - Web success
Liverpool-based Rapid Discount Outlet has taken the top spot in the table of the best performing retail websites in Q3, according to the latest quarterly testing undertaken by digital specialist Sitemorse on the websites of the UK's top 500 retailers.