R & M Swaine Ltd

R & M Swaine Ltd was formed in Barnsley in 1987 by father and son Ronnie and Martin Swaine. At the time the business operated a supermarket under the Costcutter fascia but this grew throughout the late eighties and early nineties to a total of nine bustling outlets in and around Barnsley. During this period the company developed a strong and keenly... priced range of beers wines and spirits within a supermarket format and was able to enjoy almost 60% of its turnover from drink related products. In order to capitalise on this experience the Directors decided to develop a specialist outlet selling only beers wines and spirits and in 1993 the first Rhythm & Booze ("R & B") store opened in Armthorpe, Doncaster. The store was an instant success and slowly thereafter the transition from selling everything in a supermarket environment to selling a limited and highly focused range of drinks in a different kind of size and location began. To maintain reasonable volumes and therefore competitive pricing the company simultaneously started up a delivered wholesale drinks service to other retailers and wholesalers. This enabled the establishment of a 25,000 sq ft warehouse, office and distribution centre in Wombwell, Barnsley. The company also quickly became a member of NISA, the UK's largest and most successful buying consortium. Thereafter there followed a steady progression of R & B store openings and growth in wholesale activity as the supermarkets were being sold off. In 2002 the company decided to enlist the services of Gagewell (now Clipper), a specialist distributor of high value goods. The purpose of this was to enable the company to focus on more store openings and improved retail standards by allowing a specialist service company to take care of all aspects of managing and distributing stock in an efficient manner. In 2002 the company purchased an old Methodist church in Ardsley, Barnsley which it immediately converted to an interesting and unusual head office, ably assisted by the architects Halliday Clarke. By ...Read More