The founder of Castore claims that Rangers’ controversial retailer will not alter its vision after a challenging year for its football operations.
Rangers’ relationship with Castore is currently a hot topic of debate in Ibrox circles with the Gers currently in the final year of a five-year deal with the retailer.
Whilst Castore’s partnerships stretch the length and breadth of sport, back in 2020 Rangers were the ‘disruptor’ brand’s first foray into the world of football.
Since then, the brand has gone on to sign a number of high profile contracts but now several of Castore’s biggest deals have been ripped up.
Newcastle United and Aston Villa have left in the Premier League, whilst Bayer Leverkusen have plans to quit Castore at the end of the season.
And all this after Castore posted a £29m loss from the last financial year which hangs over the company amid a plethora of negative news stories.
But undeterred, Castore founder Tom Beahon insists that the brand will not change it’s message and is embracing the challenges of the future.
It comes with Rangers having put their retail contract out to tender after finally settling years of Ibrox retail drama by signing a deal with Elite/Hummel.
Rangers partners Castore ‘embrace’ setbacks
“There’s going to be mistakes, there’s going to be setbacks,” Tom Beahon told Autosport. “That’s part of the journey. Embrace it.
“We’ll go further by having that mindset than we ever will by trying to copy someone else or being cautious.
“The two things, more than anything else, that you need are passion, because it’s going to be so hard, there’ll be so many setbacks and challenges.
“The only thing that keeps you going throughout all of those hardships – factories refuse to work with you because you’re not big enough, banks don’t want to lend you any money… The only thing that keeps you going is passion.
“That is the number one characteristic that you need to be successful. Then the second one is resilience.
“You have to have this ability to keep working hard, to keep going, to have that resilience, no matter how difficult it gets.
“They are always the two big things that I cite, but the third one, and again, I genuinely do believe there’s a lot of parallels with Red Bull Racing in this – you have to dream big, you have to be audacious. You have to believe when no one else believes.”
’Better never stops’ for Castore
There have of course been success stories for Castore, too.
Rangers stands out as one of their flagship brands in football, with the Gers posting record retail profits under Castore during this five-year arrangement.
Designs of the jerseys too have often struck a chord with fans, Rangers supporters caught fawning over a recent Ibrox heritage release.
Castore has tried to partner with brands and sportspeople who match their ‘better never stops’ and disruptive ethos.
None more so is this more evident than in the Manchester-based retailer’s historic partnership with F1 team Red Bull.
Having previously worked with McLaren, Castore struck a $200million (£159m) deal with the energy drinks supplier which embraces a similar ethos in F1 driving as Castore does in retail.
It’s these partnerships that are crucial to the Castore brand and Beahon insists that a shared risk-taking ethos is central to the company’s success.
“I love the saying: ‘You don’t have to be a Harvard student. You’ve just got to have the b**** to do it’ and it is so true. That audacity, that big vision,” said Tom.
“People, in my experience, whether you’re meeting Christian Horner, whether you’re meeting the CEO of England Cricket, I’ve been fortunate enough to meet Prime Ministers.
“People respect ambition. If you’re passionate and you’re ambitious, people buy into that.
“It was my dream to see elite athletes wearing Castore in competition. But it’s all built around performance and our story about hard work and taking a risk and trying to compete with the big boys is undoubtedly part of Castore’s DNA of ‘better never stops’.”
