From humble beginnings, entrepreneur Chris Dawson has grown his cut-price homewares business into a 134-store empire.
The son of a Royal Navy sailor, Dawson left school without any qualifications and became a market trader. He was dubbed “Plymouth’s deluxe Del Boy”.
The embodiment of the term ‘self-made’, Dawson reached 77th place in The Sunday Times’ Rich List in 2013, just 14 years after he opened The Range, which made £674m in sales last year and generated pre-tax profits of £57m.
Retail Week’s Rich List 2016 estimated Dawson was worth £1.75bn.
As Dawson kick-starts The Range’s next chapter with the proposed development of a larger, custom-built headquarters, Retail Week uncovers some fascinating facts about the business.
It wasn’t always called The Range
“The company’s debut store, which opened in 1989 on Billacombe Road, Plymouth, was named CDS – Chris Dawson Superstores – after its founder”
The company’s debut store, which opened in 1989 on Billacombe Road, Plymouth, was named CDS – Chris Dawson Superstores – after its founder.
Albeit under a new banner, The Range still trades from its inaugural store in the Plymouth town near to where Dawson was born and raised.
Twenty-eight years later, the retailer – now a national player with 134 stores – has plans for another superstore and headquarters in its hometown.
From day one, the retailer says its ethos has been to bring customers “great-quality products at the most competitive prices, drawing together everything you need for a beautiful home”.
Each store stocks around 65,000 products across 16 categories from homewares and furniture to DIY and art supplies.
The Range is targeting 600 stores
Despite having grown rapidly to 134 units, the retailer is targeting a footprint of some 600 stores.
It has three shops opening this month on Good Friday, in Cannock, the Isle of Wight and Penzance.
But it’s also moving to diversify its portfolio, branching out from its typical retail park sites and opening a spattering of stores in shopping centres and on high streets.
Earlier this year, it agreed a 10-year lease on a 46,000 sq ft former BHS site at the Kingfisher Centre on Redditch high street, due to open this Easter, and opened at another former BHS shop in Surrey Quays, London earlier this year.
It also opened a city centre shop in Tunbridge Wells at the end of last year, and a 50,000 sq ft store inside a shopping centre in Runcorn.
Dawson apparently still visits all the stores four times a year, travelling by helicopter, and has been known to amuse his staff with dirty jokes.
It buys stock from bust businesses
Dawson likes to snap up a bargain and has benefited from buying stock on the cheap from collapsed businesses such as MFI, Woolworths and Empire Stores.
“The Range boss jokingly asked the audience of Retail Week Conference in 2010 whether anyone was on the brink of collapse. ‘You are not going to tell me. I’m the grim reaper,’ he said”
He has boasted that he bought MFI’s stock for less than £3m. The market value of the stock was said to be £68m.
The Range boss jokingly asked the audience of Retail Week Conference in 2010 whether anyone was on the brink of collapse. “You are not going to tell me. I’m the grim reaper,” he said.
The Range is not alone in strategically sourcing from businesses in distress. TJ Morris, owner of Home Bargains, also specialises in buying clearance lines, close-out and distressed products.
Dawson harbours international ambitions
Last year it emerged that Dawson had long harboured ambitions to expand into Europe and was mulling a move into Germany.
“We are intensely looking at Europe and we’ll take the fight to Germany,” the tycoon told The Telegraph.
“We won’t be saying ‘I’m Chris Dawson, have a bit of that’. No, we’re looking at who’s doing it best and who we can beat.”
Dawson added that his European roll-out plans would “swerve the troublesome countries, France being one of them”.
The Range currently delivers to 10 countries, including Germany, France, Italy and Switzerland, and opened its first store in the Republic of Ireland last August.
It is building one of the country’s largest warehouses
Dawson closed a deal to build a 1.2m sq ft distribution centre – while sipping cocktails on his favourite beach in Barbados.
The warehouse, currently under construction in Bristol, is set to be one of the largest in the country – the equivalent of 15 Wembley stadiums – and will create over 1,000 jobs.
At the time of the deal, Dawson said: “I did this deal on my favourite beach in Barbados, the same place I was when I bought all of the MFI stock years back.
“I think the piña coladas at the hotel have something special in them as I always do some of my best negotiating after a couple.”
An investment of more than £100m has been ploughed into the warehouse, which will support The Range’s multichannel operations and its European expansion plans.
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