Remember when we used to make a few pennies in every pound spent on Rangers strips and that we couldn’t buy merchandise without fear of who was really making money out of us?
Well, in the latest sign that things are heading in the right direction off the pitch, James Bisgrove, the commercial and marketing director for the club gave an update, as reported by the club’s official website, on how well the relationship with Castore is progressing, now that the initial teething problems have been sorted:
“Turning around a wide range of Rangers products and launching a kit and training range in a three month window, when every other kit manufacturer works to 18 month-lead times, in the middle of a pandemic, was a monumental achievement by Castore. The lengths and costs they went to were unprecedented because they wanted to deliver for the Rangers support.
“The uptake on Rangers Castore products so far has been remarkable, but not unexpected given the backing the supporters give our club. In the first quarter of our partnership, over 200,000 Rangers products had been sold – these are unbelievable numbers and clearly have a direct and positive impact on our commercial revenues moving forward.”
Yes, you read that right, 200,000 Rangers products have been sold, you can be conservative and average this out at £25.00 a unit and that is £5,000,000, but when you consider the price of kits, hoodies, t-shirts etc, a more realistic average is in the £40-50.00 range, which works out at potentially £9m – and that is just for one period, a quarter of a year, a truly incredible show of support from Gers fans.
Are you happy with Castore as kit supplier now?
Yes
No
Our losses for the year didn’t make for good reading at £15.9m but when you consider the difference in the retail deal, enhanced partnerships and marketing deals plus the value of the players in our squad now, a profit making future is surely just around the corner.