Their New Shirt Deal Is Already In All Sorts Of Trouble Before It Even Starts.
You have to love Sevco’s sense of timing.
This is the very worst time to be promoting a new shirt manufacturers deal, but that they were still scrambling around even looking for such a deal even as the global health crisis was bubbling away, is a sure sign of a club in the worst kind of trouble.
There are massive questions hanging over Sevco’s new deal, and we know that the media is not even going to attempt to ask them. So let’s ask them ourselves.
The company they’ve signed the deal with has never made a mass-market product. They are a prestige company; that isn’t good in this situation. Do they have advanced manufacturing capacity? Do they have the infrastructure for storage and distribution on a large scale?
This is like a grand experiment for them, with Sevco as the guinea pigs.
On top of that, who is sitting in a major factory right now sewing Sevco shirts together?
Who’s working in the warehouses which store them? Who’s driving the lorries to deliver them? Who is making up shipping labels? Who is going to ensure the products get out to fans?
And as a prestige company, they charge outrageously for their products.
Who can afford to pay for highly priced football shirts right now?
Has Sevco been paid an advance on sales?
You would get that in an ordinary transaction but I doubt that a company with already limited resources would have given them a major chunk of change in the current climate with many unknowns.
Based on Sevco’s previous business relationships, Castore have to have insisted on a large number of break clauses.
They would have covered themselves every which way. What kind of guarantees did the Ibrox club get? Both parties see upsides in the deal, no doubt, but without something from the kit company, Sevco would not have a deal with anyone.
And where is Mike Ashley in all this? I find it impossible to believe that he’s walked away and given up on his “matching clause” deal … especially when the courts have found in his favour over and over and over again. Has Sevco really “got rid” of him, or are they taking their chances, knowing that without his say-so they’d have no deal at all?
One piece of speculation, and that’s all this is; Castore recently raised £7.5 million from outside “investors” to enable them to try and crack the football market.
These investors remain undisclosed; that’s Castore’s right and the rights of those companies or individuals. But it raises an interesting question. As Ashley already has a major stake in any number of sportswear firms, has he taken a stake in this company, do Sevco know this, and are all parties involved going along with a charade so that they can sell shirts …
With Sevco – and with Ashley – you just never know.
What I do know is that this deal is slated to last a “minimum of five years.”
I’ll be amazed if it’s not defunct in half that time.