New chairman to invest

[Pele_Is_God]

According to the Daily Record that is :006: :004:

[kencar]

There is an article in P&J online saying we might go to the USA for pre-season next year to establish us as a global brand  :010:

[CaleyD]

Not unusual for an incoming Chairman to make a personal investment in a club.  Not seen any newspapers or anything this morning, but from what I have heard and seen of Alan Savage I have a feeling he will be instrumental in lifting the club to the next level.  Time will tell.

[Guest kingkojak]

the obvious question (in true Big Brother nikki style) is ' whoo is he ' ?  :015:

seriously though, does anyone know anything about this guy? ie. is he minted and will he invest ££millions?

[Yngwie]

Might just be the minimum £250 share purchase!

[Johnboy]

There is an article in P&J online saying we might go to the USA for pre-season next year to establish us as a global brand  :010:

Is the USA global..??

[kencar]

USA just the beginning?

From P & J Online.....

Caley Thistle are set to spend next summer in the United States as the club embarks on a drive to establish a global brand.

New chairman Alan Savage wants to capitalise on the Highland ex-pat communities across the world. He will kick off ambitions plans next month when he meets with a potential US partner.

[caley100]

I also wonder who the US based person is with Inverness connections, willing to invest in ICT perhaps?

... Did Bill Gates not have scottish ancestors from the Highlands?  :010:

[CaleyD]

If you haven't heard of Alan Savage then you will almost definitely have heard of the Orion Group.

Orion Engineering Services Ltd is a specialist employment business first established in Inverness in 1987 to provide personnel to the rig construction yards of McDermotts at Ardersier and Highland Fabricators at Nigg. The client base expanded rapidly and by year 3 Orion's turnover was in excess of £5,000,000.

During 1988, the founders decided to extend the Company's activities into the inspection, repair and maintenance of offshore installations. By 1990 an operational office was set up in Aberdeen.

The Orion Group now operates internationally and has carried out work in Alaska, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Congo, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Bioko Island, France, Germany, Holland, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Middle East, Norway, Russia, Singapore, Spain, USA, Vietnam and Venezuela.

In a survey carried out by Price Waterhouse for the Independent on Sunday, the Orion Engineering Services Ltd was found to be the 3rd fastest growing company in Scotland and 32nd fastest in the U.K. The Orion Group’s Policy is for continuous improvement in all areas of business and for international growth.

The Orion Group has systematically built up a database of professionally qualified personnel, many of whom have worked for the Company for a number of years, on numerous secondments. Orion consistently employs over 1000 people engaged in administration, clerical, draughting, engineering, technical and blue-collar jobs to a broad range of industries. Orion currently has 1500 people on secondment.

Diversification, Acquisitions and Joint Ventures

In August 1996 Orion Engineering Services Ltd ventured into its first acquisition to augment the steady organic growth of the company. With the purchase of Edinburgh Project Services Ltd, Orion established a presence in the central belt of Scotland

In January 1997 the Orion Group completed the purchase of Warrington based employment agency Hollymain, which has now become the Technical Services division. The Orion Group expanded again in October 1997 with the opening of another office in Scotland when the Ross & Cromarty Job Shop was transferred into the private sector by Ross & Cromarty Enterprise and has now become the Project Services division.

During 1998 it was decided to develop the group’s IT systems. In order to do this, Orion Internet Systems Ltd was formed. The Internet Systems division also trades independently, offering IT consultancy and support to a wide range of small businesses.

In June 2000 Orion Engineering Services Ltd also acquired InfoStaff Ltd, a company in the telecommunications and IT sector. This is now the IT and Telecomms division.

In August 2000 Orion Rail Services Ltd was formed as a joint venture with a Glasgow-based company Black 5 with over 20 years rail and rail training experience. This company has been split into the Rail Services division and Training Services division. Both are now 100% owned by The Orion Group.

During November 2000, Orion set up OriCal Ltd as a joint venture with Caltech Ltd, a Grangemouth based engineering, fabrication and industrial services company. In order to strengthen the Groups’ position in the central belt of Scotland, the joint venture purchased Bordax, an established industrial, secretarial and administration agency. In 2003 Orion Group acquired 100% of the shares and the company became part of Project Services division with Bordax forming the Recruitment Services division.

Organic Growth

In June 2002 The Orion Group set up an operation in London as part of the Engineering Services division to support the UK’s oil, gas, rail and power generation as well as the ever increasing international work.

In September 2003, to further compliment UK operations geographical diversification, a Newcastle office was opened. Trading as part of the Technical Services division based in the North West of England.

Project Services Ireland was opened in 2000 to expand and improve the level of business in the north and south of Ireland. Originally to supply staff to ship yard trades, but they have recently opened a cleaning division, an Industrial division and also administration.

Then in 2005, the Rochdale office was opened to focus on the large Industrial Market supplying Labourers, Warehouse Operatives, FLT Drivers and the like to numerous clients in both the Private and Public Sectors.

International Expansion

In 2000 a major contract award resulted in the appointment of a full time representation agreement with First Engineering operating out of Cairo, Egypt.

In 2001 Powerjobs, a Manchester-based agency specialising in supply of trades people to Holland, was acquired and merged with Technical Services in Warrington.

Further investment in Kazakhstan during November 2001 resulted in the formation of KIS-Orion LLP, a 50/50 joint venture with a major local Kazakh construction company, Tengizneftestroy (TNS), from the Atyrau region of Kazakhstan. The Head Office in Atyrau is now supported from offices in Tengiz and Aksai. Opening Orion Projects Services LLC in Houston in October 2002 ensured that The Orion Group was represented globally in all major oil & gas centres worldwide.

2004 has seen Orion enter into a JV agreement with the TAC company based in Ulsan and Geoje Island, Korea. The intention of this relationship is to be able to provide expat and national staff into the Hyundai, Samsung and Daewoo fabrication yards and to be able to provide all the logistics support in terms of accommodation, local transportation and Korean mobile phones that our personnel might require.

In 2005 the divisional director of Aberdeen office, John Dixon relocated to Singapore to develop the market in the SE Asia region.

Sector Diversification - Nuclear

In November 2002 with the acquisition of D Gow & Son a fabrication company based in Caithness the Group made a positive move to enter the nuclear decommissioning industry. D Gow and Son’s core business is fabrication for the UKAEA’s Dounreay facility, whilst also providing services to the oil & gas, electricity and general industries.

Turnover

In the 12 month period to August 2005 Group annual turnover reached £101m.

[RiG]

According to the Daily Record that is :006: :004:

*Daily Record*

[Harry Chibber]

Caley Thistle are set to spend next summer in the United States as the club embarks on a drive to establish a global brand.

New chairman Alan Savage wants to capitalise on the Highland ex-pat communities across the world. He will kick off ambitions plans next month when he meets with a potential US partner.

Would it not be better if we sorted our own house out first before going gallivanting to the US to promote our "global brand"... what complete rubbish!  We'll be buying a japanese player soon so we can tap into that revenue aswell!!

... we need to be working on our merchandising and general running of the club before we go and try and promote it

[+Gringo]

I'd wager there's more Inverness support in England than there ever will be in the piggin' States. Can't quite see what this USA biz is all about as the Yanks have as much interest in 'soccer', as they call it, as we do in piggin' Rounders.

I'm off to sit on the fence again - but the view is getting cloudier by the minute...  :009:

[caley100]

Well, we cant say he aint successful at what he does, so if this carries onto football in some way, we could be heading into a new era for ICT.

Some good footballers in the states may fancy europe / Scotland.

[Glebeict]

      Ah . Perhaps they will make a detour to Toronto , So Scotty will

      get his wish.

     

[Guest kingkojak]

I'd wager there's more Inverness support in England than there ever will be in the piggin' States. Can't quite see what this USA biz is all about as the Yanks have as much interest in 'soccer', as they call it, as we do in piggin' Rounders.

that might normally be true gringo but you know what the fatty-mericans are like with regards to scottish ancestery - id wager that a football team with the name inverness touring the states will attract a lot of attention with all those with great great great granny mac from the Highlands of Scotland. 

i think this idea is a potential treasure chest - the fatty-mericans already love the bagpipes, kilt, golf, highland dancing, nessy  etc...  lets sell the feckers the ICT dream as well!!  :clapping04: 

[+Gringo]

Hmmm, fair point there Kingkojak...them yanks is as soft as shyte. Hope we don't push it too far though - i'd hate us to be sponsored by Mac-piggin'-Donalds... :015:

[CaleyD]

Since this site moved to it's current location it has recorded visits from 97 different countries.  Taking the UK out of the equation, USA & Canada make up around 40% of visits from the rest, closely followed by Australia, France, Germany and Japan (so the Japan statement above isn't so stupid).

I don't know if the club have done any research into this (I very much doubt it as they have never approached us, as far as I am aware, for any such information) but ICT already have a (small but growing) global following, or at least something is attracting attention to us around the world, it therefore makes sense to try and build on that and tap into a wider market.

When you consider that there are 193 countries in the world, and then make allowance for the number of those which will have little, if any, Internet facilities then it is a pretty amazing how wide spread the name Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC really has spread in such a short time

[Guest kingkojak]

if the club is going to market itself to the fatty-mericans then it needs a catchy sales pitch like having nessy as the club mascot or an away strip in tartan or something equally cheesy... 

think the nessy idea is much better than that pissin lion thing weve got BTW..

[+Gringo]

think the nessy idea is much better than that pissin lion thing weve got BTW..

I'll second that.

[Harry Chibber]

American.... Japanese..... Polish???

What's going on??

[Guest kingkojak]

next the club will be changing it name to International Caley Thistle!!  :015: :015: :015:

[+Gringo]

Or, to keep the Yankie theme of things... Invernessie Monsters FC.  :015:

[Alex MacLeod]

Dont we already have a nessie as well as the 'pissin lion thingy'

[tm4tj]

Hairy Chipper

This report about the Poles is a bit misleading

"A Caley Thistle spokeswoman said the club hit on the idea after staff handing out publicity leaflets and found many of the people they approached were Poles"

Not strictly correct, I know I am being pedantic.....but on 24th August, themann4thejob stated this in reply to Missing in action, ie where are all the fans since the Celtic game.

quotey quotey:-

"Theres an answer.  Why don't we sign a couple of polish players" :003:

The true meaning of this was if we sign a Polish player, then we could tap in to the massive Polish spectator market available in the Highlands.

And not a tea leaf in sight.

[Alex MacLeod]

Dont mean to be pedantic Don but your suggestion was to sign a pole. The lassie's suggestion is bi-lingual advertising :001: :001:

I have no doubt that this chairman will put his hand in his pocket but we dont want to be in a position where he actually needs to. If he can draw on investment from abroad then all the better. Inverness is becoming an internationally recognised city and I would imagine that the chairmans hoping that if foriegn money is going to be invested in the city then some of it could come to the club. An american tour in the summer would likely make us money, provided the costs were sponsored, because the Yanks are beginning to open up to soccer and they just love Scattland