How working with drumBEAT Marketing helped RIDGID Toolshop Ltd to grow its retail operation
by strengthening its e-commerce capabilities and boosting its customer engagement strategy
RIDGID Toolshop first began employing drumBEAT Marketing’s digital engagement, website management
and hosting services back in 2019. At the time, the business had limited in-house expertise and was
looking for a partner to take its online sales capabilities to the next level. Having had a website built, it had
begun trying to integrate an e-commerce platform and really needed some ongoing expert help to
maximise its potential.
After choosing drumBEAT to be its preferred digital marketing partner, RIDGID Toolshop
entrusted the drumBEAT team to deliver a comprehensive range of services
encompassing website support, data security and social media management, including
the following:
Toolshop sustains viability
A range of data security services to ensure
RIDGID Toolshop’s e-commerce platform is
protected against cyberthreats and its
customers’ data is safe
Social media management, which is providing effective content to drive audience engagement, maintain
market awareness and support the business’s sales process
“I think what drumBEAT and RIDGID Toolshop have achieved together
over the years is testament to the closeness of the relationship we’ve
built. The drumBEAT team has become part of our fabric; they
regularly come in here and spend time with us. You could take a look
at our signing-in board at reception at pretty much any time, and
you’d see Chris’s name, Heidi’s name and Ashleigh’s name – they’re
part of our team. They know us, they know our products and they ask
questions; we like that.”
RIDGID Toolshop Ltd was launched in 2015 to provide tradespeople with fast and easy
online access to the right tools to get their job done, quickly and efficiently.
RIDGID Toolshop Ltd is a division of Pipe Tools Specialists Ltd, which was originally
established as a family-run business in 1964, and today, it operates as an employee
ownership trust that’s run by a board of four directors and employs 20 staff in total across
its two branches in Lincoln and Manchester. Pipe Tool Specialists Ltd is currently the UK’s
largest stock holder of RIDGID, Orbitalum and Lincmaster products.
In the past three decades, the company has evolved to become a diverse, multi-channel
distributor, with customers throughout the UK. As it continues to grow its wholesale
market share, it has also more recently begun to focus on developing its retail operations,
and it established its online presence in 2015.
With a plan in place to grow its retail arm, Pipe Tools Specialists Ltd had identified the
potential of e-commerce and needed to find a reputable partner that would be able to
help plan and build a solution capable of supporting its online sales growth ambitions.
Pipe Tools Specialists Ltd had limited in-house marketing resources and needed an
integrated digital marketing specialist to support its team in creating, executing and
managing its sales and marketing strategy.
“When we originally launched our online business, RIDGID Toolshop Ltd in
2015, we knew pretty much nothing about e-commerce. We’d had a website
built and started to utilise Google Analytics, but we needed to work with a
team of experts to really help us take our digital marketing forwards. Ideally, I
wanted us to work with a team that not only had the right technical credentials
but that was also local to us.”
After searching for a reliable digital partner online, Dave made the decision to team up
with drumBEAT Marketing in 2019.
For many years now, drumBEAT has provided many key IT support and digital marketing
services, including these:
distribution
These are some of the key solutions,
results and impacts that RIDGID Toolshop
has seen as a result of working with
drumBEAT, as Dave Carless explained:
“drumBEAT was instrumental in helping us build our e- commerce capabilities.”
delivered
“Our business is quite unique in many ways. Chris and his
team at drumBEAT have spent a lot of time getting to
know and understand us and sharing their knowledge to
help us determine which solutions and services would be
the right fit for us. drumBeat’s versatility is a big thing for
me – when we decided to bring in external marketing
support, we were looking for more than just an agency
partner. We wanted to work with a team that was reactive
and would immerse themselves in our business. We
needed a partner that could become part of our team;
that’s exactly what the team at drumBEAT have done. If I
have any issues, I can pick up the phone to Chris at any
time, and he’ll do whatever he needs to do to solve it that
day – I don’t know another agency that would do that.
drumBEAT is a vital component in ensuring our online
sales platform runs as it should and, above that, in
helping us maintain the status quo with the global brands
we distribute.”
“Chris has been an amazing support over the years. He and the drumBEAT team have really helped bring the potential of selling online
into sharp focus for us. So much so that, in 2025, we invested in building a dedicated in-house team to focus on managing and
growing our online sales function and to look after some elements of our digital marketing. That probably wouldn’t have happened had
drumBEAT not put solid foundations in place. In fact, we actually ended up employing someone who originally worked for Chris, with
his full support. She learnt an immense amount from him during her tenure at drumBEAT, and she wouldn’t be able to do the job she
does today were it not for the time Chris spent mentoring her.”
working with drumBEAT this way:
“drumBEAT is so much more than a supplier. I absolutely consider drumBEAT’s
team to be our strategic partner. They’ve gone to great lengths to get to know our
people, our products, and our industry and to understand our business model.
They continue to provide many of our services. Chris is one of the most
knowledgeable people I’ve met, and I’ve no doubt that he and his team will
continue working alongside us for many years to come.”
