Castore Accelerates With McLaren F1 Racing Deal

An upscale sportswear brand backed by Sir Andy Murray has signed a multi-million pound contract with McLaren’s Formula 1 team.

Castore will sell a range of jackets, pants, t-shirts and accessories for the racing team and its fans. It will also operate the back-end operations and online shop for McLaren.

The 31-year-old Liverpudlian Tom Beahon founded the online retailer with his brother Phil in 2016 after both had worked in the city for a short time.

“The founding goal was not to play against Nike, Adidas and Puma – we always thought that would be difficult,” said Tom Beahon. “The long-term goal is to become the number 1 premium sportswear brand in the world market.”

The deal comes after similar collaborations with Rangers Football Club and West Indies Cricket and an earlier deal with McLaren Automotive. Mr. Beahon believes partnerships will help them “lift” the brand.

He declined to say how much the connection was worth but said it was “the largest clothing store in McLaren’s history”. Sources close to the deal said it was worth up to £ 30 million.

Castore already has 80 employees and plans to hire another 200 in the coming months as its headquarters move from Liverpool to Manchester in June – an e-commerce hub for online businesses like Hut Group and Boohoo.

Mr Beahon said the brand has seen triple digit sales growth every year since its inception and has been profitable. This year the company is aiming for a turnover of 100 million GBP.

“The advantage of being brothers who spend all day together every day and live two doors apart in the same apartment block is that we only live and breathe one business.”