8th February 2023 - It is 18 years to the day since Peter O’Toole decided to set out on his own to deliver a quality service to the UK’s biggest retailers, and so RMS (Retail Merchandising Services) was born.
Peter was a renowned retail expert and a visionary who saw a huge gap in the merchandising market for a partner who’d be able to support retail brands with flexible, professional merchandising services that enhanced the customer experience in store. By building a highly retail trained and skilled workforce, RMS was able to provide staff around the country, adapted to the different needs of each retailer.
Within just a few short years, RMS had become a trusted partner to many of the UK’s well-loved large retail brands. The company continued to grow and its service offering expanded. In 2013, RMS was the quickest growing company of its kind, and one of the 50 fastest growing companies in Wales.
Peter tragically passed away in 2015 from a rare form of lung cancer, and many of the company’s retail partners believed that would also be the end of RMS too. This was because they saw Peter and RMS as one.
But following on from his passing, the family business was left to sons Daniel and Connah O’Toole.
Peter’s son Daniel, previously the company’s Development Director, became the new CEO. He alleviated the retail partners’ fears by ensuring that the professional service they had become accustomed to would continue. He gave the company a new lease of life by implementing significant changes to the structure of the business, and introducing a new focus on innovation, both of which have ensured the company’s future stability and continued growth.
Building on Peter’s legacy, Daniel created a refreshing workplace culture that is still defined to this day by the 4 core values; integrity, loyalty, teamwork and innovation. The company is constantly aiming to find new ways to do things better and be as efficient as possible.
In 2016, RMS developed an innovative new resource management solution which would completely transform the way in which we schedule and manage our staff and deliver projects for our clients.
The system, which we’ve branded flexTM, uses algorithms to intelligently schedule, optimise and manage teams of flexible staff based on multiple criteria. The system also gives full transparency and visibility to our clients and provides our staff with greater control over their working life.
Unique within the merchandising and retail support industry, flexTM is what truly sets RMS apart from the competition and, combined with our trained staff, allows us to deliver a consistently excellent service for our clients.
Fast forward to today, 18 years after Peter first set up RMS, and the business is continuing to thrive under the guidance of Daniel and Connah.
RMS now has a complete retail support solution service offering, from merchandising and retail installation, to retail construction and an end-to-end retail change programme management.
This is a really special day for our company as we reflect on the past 18 years and look forward to celebrating many more milestones to come.
“Wow – How our business has changed over the years. I can remember the early days operating from a small industrial unit aka 'the tin shack'. I recall us few managers working from a desktop computer and scheduling our teams using a drywipe whiteboard. We've come such a long way from our first project that involved the remerchandising of many Kwiksave stores at the time, to the many retail partners we work with today offering the full retail support solution.
I've been very fortunate to know and work with many talented people over the years that have contributed to the success of RMS. I know that Peter would be extremely proud that his sons have remained committed to the further growth of the company and that they have established RMS as one of the UK's leading retail support services providers.”
Mike Higgins, RMS Partnership Manager - one of our longest serving members of staff employed directly by Peter himself in RMS’ early days.
“It’s a great opportunity to look back and to reflect on what has been achieved since dad signed those papers 18 years ago. He has left an incredible, long lasting legacy” – Connah O’Toole, Business Executive.
“Dad really enjoyed a sociable pint of beer with the team! His dream (RMS) that he made a reality, is now of legal age to order a drink at the bar itself! Cheers Dad! 🍻 We’ll have a shandy with the team to celebrate!” - Daniel O’Toole, CEO.
