Fairly new brand. British based. Partnered with England cricket, Rangers lots more and top sports stars, so no small fry. Promising. Hopefully the kits will be good.
Well, let's look at the whole Castore thing. First, they are indeed small fry. In fact so small, the fry haven't even hatched from the eggs yet.
Let's start with the brand name. I think it is pronounced Kas-tor-re and amusingly castore in Italian means beaver and we all know what that's slang for! It is likely to derive from the ancient Greek Kástōr, meaning “one who excels, pure, clean”. As long as the beaver thing doesn't get out of hand, this is clever marketing because for some reason us consumers really get on very well with the "k" sound. It doesn't have to be a "k", a "c" will do as long as it is pronounced "k". Considering the fact it is not a common sound in the English language it is used extensively in vast quantities of brand names, particularly cars. There are Kellogg's, Coca-Cola, Chysler, Corvette, Kia, Kodak, Kappa, K-Swiss, etc, etc. Ford have used it extensively over the years: Cortina, Consul, Corsair, Capri, Ka. The "k" doesn't even have to be up-front as in Ikea, the Ford Focus and of course another word from ancient Greece, Nike.
Anyway, a good path to brand awareness is to have a "k" sound in your name. In all probability we would be much more successful if we merely dropped the "h" and become Carlton Athletic.
Now the business. As at its last accounts, which were published in October last year, it had a paltry £178k of tangible assets. So, I guess it maybe has a computer system to design the gear and that would be about it. In other words, it has far less in the way of fixed assets than I do! But it has a comforting £10mn cash in hand, which equates nicely with shareholders' funds on the other side of the balance sheet.
It also has only 38 employees (more than double the figure for the previous year). I suspect the majority of these work in their 8 UK stores. Numbers will rise again once they take on the Charlton store of course!
Surely they can't be paying us a fortune because they haven't got it.
However the comforting bits: The three largest shareholders out-vote the rest. that's the two founders (brothers) and reportedly a Jersey-based company called the Monte Group which is owned by the billionaire Issa brothers (look them up if you haven't heard of them). Then there's this quote from one of the founders when they started supplying Wolves.
"We were very clear when we made the decision to enter the football market that we would only partner with clubs who had ambitions to compete at European level – it was clear from the very beginning that everyone at Wolves, from the ownership down, are wholly committed to that goal, which is perfectly aligned with Castore’s own ambitions of challenging the existing sportswear market incumbents."
Fairly new brand. British based. Partnered with England cricket, Rangers lots more and top sports stars, so no small fry. Promising. Hopefully the kits will be good.
Well, let's look at the whole Castore thing. First, they are indeed small fry. In fact so small, the fry haven't even hatched from the eggs yet.
Let's start with the brand name. I think it is pronounced Kas-tor-re and amusingly castore in Italian means beaver and we all know what that's slang for! It is likely to derive from the ancient Greek Kástōr, meaning “one who excels, pure, clean”. As long as the beaver thing doesn't get out of hand, this is clever marketing because for some reason us consumers really get on very well with the "k" sound. It doesn't have to be a "k", a "c" will do as long as it is pronounced "k". Considering the fact it is not a common sound in the English language it is used extensively in vast quantities of brand names, particularly cars. There are Kellogg's, Coca-Cola, Chysler, Corvette, Kia, Kodak, Kappa, K-Swiss, etc, etc. Ford have used it extensively over the years: Cortina, Consul, Corsair, Capri, Ka. The "k" doesn't even have to be up-front as in Ikea, the Ford Focus and of course another word from ancient Greece, Nike.
Anyway, a good path to brand awareness is to have a "k" sound in your name. In all probability we would be much more successful if we merely dropped the "h" and become Carlton Athletic.
Now the business. As at its last accounts, which were published in October last year, it had a paltry £178k of tangible assets. So, I guess it maybe has a computer system to design the gear and that would be about it. In other words, it has far less in the way of fixed assets than I do! But it has a comforting £10mn cash in hand, which equates nicely with shareholders' funds on the other side of the balance sheet.
It also has only 38 employees (more than double the figure for the previous year). I suspect the majority of these work in their 8 UK stores. Numbers will rise again once they take on the Charlton store of course!
Surely they can't be paying us a fortune because they haven't got it.
However the comforting bits: The three largest shareholders out-vote the rest. that's the two founders (brothers) and reportedly a Jersey-based company called the Monte Group which is owned by the billionaire Issa brothers (look them up if you haven't heard of them). Then there's this quote from one of the founders when they started supplying Wolves.
"We were very clear when we made the decision to enter the football market that we would only partner with clubs who had ambitions to compete at European level – it was clear from the very beginning that everyone at Wolves, from the ownership down, are wholly committed to that goal, which is perfectly aligned with Castore’s own ambitions of challenging the existing sportswear market incumbents."
So, it's happening for us (and Salford!)
They are certainly a bigger player in the UK football shirt market than Hummel were five years ago when we were their first UK kit in decades.
Ditto Marcron
Both did very well out of paying us well to showcase their brand.
As for paying us a fortune I doubt we will make much of a dent in their £10m so fairly sure we will be paid.
Usually these deals are for a lump sum (six figures at our level) and then a small percentage of each shirt or other item sold in the shop or online. So it's only the upfront bit they have to find now. The rest will come post-sales.
They also take on the overheads of the staff and shop. Personally, I'd prefer to have retail (and hospitality) in house but there are arguments for and against outsourcing and without knowing the figures it's impossible to say if that's the right or wrong decision.
The other big variable in these deals is how much kit they supply for free to the club's various teams. IF they provide everything to the women's, men's, youth, academy, staff and trust that is a lot of clobber. How much of that can make a huge difference but we don't know the details.
And I'm told it is Cas-tor after the Greek god. I guess because the founders are brothers and Castor and Pollux were twin brothers.
And the seeds of the castor oil plant are also the source of ricin...the toxin much favoured by Russia.
And previously Bulgaria it seems.
Georgi Markov, a well known Bulgarian novelist and playwright, dissident of the communist regime in his country, escaped to England where, he dedicated himself in broadcasting from BBC World Service, the Radio Free Europe and the German Deutsche Welle against the communist party and especially against its leader Todor Zhivkov who in a party's meeting told that he wanted Markov silenced for ever. On the 7th September 1978 Markov received a deadly dose of the poison ricin by injection to his thigh by a specially modified umbrella. He died without a final diagnosis a few days later. The autopsy revealed the poisoning. The murderer, in spite of the efforts of the Police, Interpol and Diplomacy still remains unknown.
Comments
;-)
Let's start with the brand name. I think it is pronounced Kas-tor-re and amusingly castore in Italian means beaver and we all know what that's slang for! It is likely to derive from the ancient Greek Kástōr, meaning “one who excels, pure, clean”. As long as the beaver thing doesn't get out of hand, this is clever marketing because for some reason us consumers really get on very well with the "k" sound. It doesn't have to be a "k", a "c" will do as long as it is pronounced "k". Considering the fact it is not a common sound in the English language it is used extensively in vast quantities of brand names, particularly cars. There are Kellogg's, Coca-Cola, Chysler, Corvette, Kia, Kodak, Kappa, K-Swiss, etc, etc. Ford have used it extensively over the years: Cortina, Consul, Corsair, Capri, Ka. The "k" doesn't even have to be up-front as in Ikea, the Ford Focus and of course another word from ancient Greece, Nike.
Anyway, a good path to brand awareness is to have a "k" sound in your name. In all probability we would be much more successful if we merely dropped the "h" and become Carlton Athletic.
Now the business. As at its last accounts, which were published in October last year, it had a paltry £178k of tangible assets. So, I guess it maybe has a computer system to design the gear and that would be about it. In other words, it has far less in the way of fixed assets than I do! But it has a comforting £10mn cash in hand, which equates nicely with shareholders' funds on the other side of the balance sheet.
It also has only 38 employees (more than double the figure for the previous year). I suspect the majority of these work in their 8 UK stores. Numbers will rise again once they take on the Charlton store of course!
Surely they can't be paying us a fortune because they haven't got it.
However the comforting bits: The three largest shareholders out-vote the rest. that's the two founders (brothers) and reportedly a Jersey-based company called the Monte Group which is owned by the billionaire Issa brothers (look them up if you haven't heard of them). Then there's this quote from one of the founders when they started supplying Wolves.
"We were very clear when we made the decision to enter the football market that we would only partner with clubs who had ambitions to compete at European level – it was clear from the very beginning that everyone at Wolves, from the ownership down, are wholly committed to that goal, which is perfectly aligned with Castore’s own ambitions of challenging the existing sportswear market incumbents."
So, it's happening for us (and Salford!)
Ditto Marcron
Both did very well out of paying us well to showcase their brand.
As for paying us a fortune I doubt we will make much of a dent in their £10m so fairly sure we will be paid.
Usually these deals are for a lump sum (six figures at our level) and then a small percentage of each shirt or other item sold in the shop or online. So it's only the upfront bit they have to find now. The rest will come post-sales.
They also take on the overheads of the staff and shop. Personally, I'd prefer to have retail (and hospitality) in house but there are arguments for and against outsourcing and without knowing the figures it's impossible to say if that's the right or wrong decision.
The other big variable in these deals is how much kit they supply for free to the club's various teams. IF they provide everything to the women's, men's, youth, academy, staff and trust that is a lot of clobber. How much of that can make a huge difference but we don't know the details.
And I'm told it is Cas-tor after the Greek god. I guess because the founders are brothers and Castor and Pollux were twin brothers.
If only there was something else you could use on the shirt to signify how many World Cups youve won...
The announcement might be heralding a clear out at the club.
Georgi Markov, a well known Bulgarian novelist and playwright, dissident of the communist regime in his country, escaped to England where, he dedicated himself in broadcasting from BBC World Service, the Radio Free Europe and the German Deutsche Welle against the communist party and especially against its leader Todor Zhivkov who in a party's meeting told that he wanted Markov silenced for ever. On the 7th September 1978 Markov received a deadly dose of the poison ricin by injection to his thigh by a specially modified umbrella. He died without a final diagnosis a few days later. The autopsy revealed the poisoning. The murderer, in spite of the efforts of the Police, Interpol and Diplomacy still remains unknown.