The Bryn Consortium open to new investment options for Torquay United

Torquay United have indicated that it’s a matter of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ they will bring in outside investment to help with the mission to drive the Gulls back to the Football League and keep it there.

The Bryn Consortium have poured money, believed to be in the region of £1.5 million so far, into hauling the club out of administration and turning it round on and off the pitch.

After last season’s near-miss, United are hoping for another tilt at promotion through the National League South Play-Offs.

But they predict that the club will lose more than £500,000 this season.

Mike Westcott and Mark Bowes-Cavanagh fielded questions from supporters in their latest Co-Chairmen’s Chat, and the possibility of embracing new money from outside the club was well up the agenda.

“The short answer is Yes,” said Westcott before laying out the potential pitfalls and possible scenarios.

Describing United as ‘not a nifty speedboat but a lumbering old oil tanker that needs turning around’, Westcott stressed: “That’s taken a bit longer than we thought.”

He explained: “If you want to reach the Football League and you want to be sustainable in the Football League, you need more firepower financially.

“But we need to get the foundation stones right, where this looks like an attractive investment.”

Westcott spoke of the work that’s still going on to reorganise the club behind the scenes, with the aim of driving up crucial non-match revenues and bring new sponsors and partners on board.

“We have made good progress..., but that’s taken a bit longer than we thought ,” he said.

“Once we are happy that we’ve got a settled infrastructure that’s showing in the finances, that we are delivering a successful football product, that we’ve got all the other aspects around, that’s the point where we’ve got a really good investment story to tell.”

Westcott confirmed that United have already received approaches from potential outside investors, and they are believed to have come from abroad as well as from the UK.

“There is no lack of interest. We do get knocks on the door here,” he said.

Westcott outlined the sort of person who might fit the bill – ‘someone who could buy into the vision and have the firepower behind them to fund an assault higher up the pyramid’.

But he stressed: “There’s a lot of people that see football as a bit of a plaything.

“One thing we have promised our fans is that we won’t allow this club to fall into people who want it for all the wrong reasons.”

Outside investment in football is often fraught with dangers, since it usually involves a change in a club’s equity.

The Bryn Consortium currently holds a 66.30% majority shareholding, with the Torquay United Supporters Trust (TUST) on 28.65% and just over 5% among smaller private supporters.

Westcott and Bowes-Cavanagh answered a wide range of submitted questions, with Bowes-Cavanagh taking the inevitable ones about the recent departure of manager Paul Wotton and the appointment of his successor Jimmy Ball.

Other areas covered included the pre-Christmas round of redundancies that saw several long-serving members of staff leave the club.

Among them were groundsman Julian Gouldthorpe, kit man/assistant physio Russell Cleave and commercial manager Sharon Musker, who has since been replaced by new Partnerships Manager Luke Maker.

Westcott and Bowes-Cavanagh also committed the club to a revamped approach to United’s Youth Academy, with Ball playing the same leading role in that area that he did at his previous club AFC Totton.

The co-chairs plan to take more questions at an open fans’ forum which is expected to be held at the end of the current season.