Rapid Retail at Lord's

Rapid Retail’s new bar unit goes ‘live’ at Lord’s cricket ground during England’s first home test match of the season

Rapid Retail, the UK-based business that designs, fabricates, fits and supplies high quality retail units, has unveiled its new bar unit at Lord’s, home of MCC, the world’s most famous cricket club.

The new unit, installed before the beginning of the cricket season and designed to be utilised to increase bar sales at the nursery end of the ground during the many prestigious events hosted at the renowned venue, including npower Test matches; One-Day internationals and Middlesex’s Twenty20, County Championship and Pro40 matches, was first used during England’s inaugural home test match v. West Indies.

Built to a high specification and uniquely designed for MCC, the unit measures an impressive 23 meters in length and incorporates multi and fast-flow pouring systems, a large refrigeration area to house the necessary cooling systems, customized stainless steel counters and a fully fitted IT and CCTV network. Externally the eye-catching graphics reflect MCC’s famous branding.

Pedro Saavedra, catering manager at MCC, who commissioned the unit said: “Having used a trailer-based bar for the last few years, the installation of the new Rapid Retail unit provides us with a fantastic facility where we can utilise the latest fast pour pump technology to provide visitors to the nursery end with a much better level of service.”

Nick Daffern, Rapid Retail’s managing director, added: “We are thrilled and honoured to be involved with such an historic and prestigious venue. MCC is the most famous cricket club in the world and its ground, Lord’s, universally known as ‘the home of cricket’, has a huge heritage.

Our unit was designed and built according to MCC’s exact requirements, with meticulous and rigorous planning during the manufacturing stage to provide the club with a state-of-the-art bar unit which not only fits its designated space exactly, but was also needed to be built in such a way as to overcome the space restrictions with regards to transporting the unit within the ground. In addition, our team made sure that the installation of the unit was integrated with all the other suppliers.

All in all, I’m delighted to say that we believe we delivered on all counts.”

Rapid Retail’s bespoke solutions, together with its passion and commitment, have seen many famous venues and stadia increase their match day commercialisation and boost customer penetration. Its units, branded with clients’ colours and logos, are used throughout the sporting world in a variety of uses, including merchandise sales, programme operation, ticket collection, shirt printing, turnstile operation, as bar, food and beverage units and as replica high street shops. Costing from as little as £1.25 per square foot per game or event, the units are safe, secure and fully maintained, offering clubs and event organisers the opportunity to increase their retail footprint with no initial capital expenditure.