The Range (retailer)





The Range is a multi-channel retailer selling products in the home, garden, and leisure categories, with over 210 stores in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

History
In 1980, Chris Dawson started business as an open-air market trader in Plymouth, South West England.

His first physical retail store opened in 1989 at Sugar Mill Business Park on Billacombe Road, Plymouth, under the name "C.D.S. Superstores". This trading style continues to be displayed on external signs exclusively at this debut store only, as a nod to the heritage of the business.

The business was subsequently rebranded "The Range" in the early 1990s after further store openings. "The Range" is the trading name of CDS (Superstores International) Ltd.

Wilko acquisition
In September 2023, the company acquired the brand and digital assets of discount retailer Wilko for £5,000,000 after Wilko's parent company collapsed into administration a month earlier.



In late October 2023, The Range’s parent company, C.D.S Superstores, said that the company would open 5 new stand-alone Wilko stores “before Christmas". This came just under 3 weeks after the collapsed retailer ceased operations. This would include a store in both Plymouth and Exeter, two in the southeast, and one in the north.

By 29 March 2024, Wilko stores had opened in Plymouth, Exeter, Luton, St Albans, and Rotherham, with an additional store planned to open in Poole at an unconfirmed date.

Key people
Chris Dawson, the founder of the business, was chief executive officer between 1989 and 2017.

Jersey based Sarah Dawson wholly owns the parent company's shares with her husband Chris Dawson listed as a person with significant control.

Chris Dawson was ranked fifth in Management Today's seventh annual survey of Britain's Top 100 Entrepreneurs.

Products
The Range sells a diverse and large assortment of products, their marketing often referencing a product range of over 65,000 products. Products sold are a combination of branded, non-branded, and own-branded goods in the broad home, garden and leisure categories.

Store growth
The Range has expanded rapidly. In 2009, The Range was ranked 121st on The Sunday Times, PricewaterhouseCoopers Top Track, and 250 League Table of the United Kingdom's fastest growing companies.

The business regularly announces new store openings in large tranches, for example in November 2013, it was announced that The Range planned to open 40 stores in the period of 2013 to 2016. New store openings such as the Swansea store regularly gain local press attention.

Many of the stores in Ireland are repurposed stores/retail warehouses that have been left by other brands including Woolworths, Tesco, Homebase and Atlantic Homecare

During 2016 and 2017, The Range opened stores in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland for the first time. Chris Dawson, the chain's billionaire owner has previously indicated he has European expansion plans, including 1,000 stores across Europe. The retailer currently operates a total of 211 stores, including a brand new concept store in Derriford, Plymouth.

The Range have also expanded e-commerce operations significantly in recent years. The business was recognised in 2017 as a leading multi-channel retailer in the Internet Retailing UK Top 250 and the EU Top 350 indices.

Store formats & locations
The vast majority of stores are situated in out-of-town retail park locations, with some exceptions such as the four Greater London stores at Surrey Quays, Enfield, Romford and Watford. The Range also occupies some shopping centre locations such as the Redditch store. Various design iterations of the store branding and format have been used as the brand has evolved. Stores are geographically dispersed across all regions of the United Kingdom & the Republic of Ireland.

Many stores also include a "Dee Dee's", an own-brand coffee shop concept operated by Compass Group and found only within The Range stores. Newer, larger stores offer an Iceland food department (paid for at main tills), and the cafes in stores with Iceland are branded 'Iceland Cafe'. Some stores also host concessions such as rug cleaner hire or key cutting services.

Distribution centres
The Range operates over 2,000,000 sq ft of distribution space, mostly from their facilities at Avonmouth, Bristol and Thorne, Doncaster.

The Avonmouth distribution centre has an area of over 1,250,000 sq ft and is the largest single footprint warehouse in the United Kingdom.

In Spring 2024, The Range will open a brand new distribution centre in Stowmarket, Suffolk, just off the A14 trunk road, with 1,170,000 sq ft of space for goods. The road is directly on the route from the Port of Felixstowe to the Midlands and beyond.

The Thorne distribution centre has an area of over 750,000 sq ft.

The Range also has a distribution centre located in Normanton, Wakefield, and a Multichannel Fulfilment Centre in Rugby, Warwickshire.

The distribution centres are currently operated by DHL. Distribution is run by Gregory Distribution Group who supply drivers to use The Range’s fleet of vehicles on local work, and they also use their own vehicles for longer distance deliveries.

Head office
The Range Head Office used to be in the Estover area of Plymouth, but in 2019 it was relocated to a new building named ‘Elsie Margaret House’. It is in the Derriford area of Plymouth next door to the flagship store. It employs over 300 people.

The new head office was part of a major development by London-based property developer Petros and was set to include residential, retail, hospitality and office space. Dawson has indicated a long-held ambition to commit The Range to a long-term future and its head office jobs to Plymouth, the city where he has lived most of his life.