Andy Murray: My business plan for next 50 years
Andy Murray has a shrewd eye on his future after tennis
AYEAR ago Sir Andy Murray, beset by injury, was preparing to pack away his tennis rackets and consider a life after the sport he loves. Instead, standing next to his newly launched clothing range in London’s Kings Road, he’s now juggling a successful comeback from injury, his growing number of business interests and the birth of his third child Teddy only two weeks before.
‘We’re busy – three kids under four. It’s actually been all right so far,’ says Murray, 32, smiling in acknowledgement that babies tend to have less and less regard for adult sleep cycles as the weeks go by.
While his career on the court took off again, he had already pressed the button on a string of ventures that had been destined to help him pass the time if vital surgery had been unsuccessful – a stake in a fast growing food chain, a posh hotel, a partner and shareholder in a fledgling sportswear brand, and even a growing art collection.
‘At the time I thought I was closer to the end than maybe I am today,’ says Murray, fresh from his comeback win last month at the European Open in Antwerp. ‘So, when I was injured, I spoke to a few different clothing companies because my contract with the one I was with [Under Armour] was coming up,’ he says. In his search he met two brothers at Wimbledon, Tom and Phil Beahon, both a similar age to Murray and who had given up their sporting ambitions in football and cricket, despite some success, to pursue a career in business.
The Beahons – two canny lads from the Wirral – had already attracted backing for their upmarket sports brand Castore from Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin StartUp scheme and New Look founder Tom Singh, as well as their own money.
The similarities with Murray’s own situation and the possibility their brand could form part of life after sport seemed inescapable.
‘The traditional industry deals were very much a three-year term – I wear your clothes; you pay me money. With them it was, you know, we’re looking at doing something quite different: a post-playing career as well as having a line of clothing which is pretty cool and something different.’
Aside from the fact the Beahons, who only launched the brand in 2016 and are on target to hit £14 million sales this year, now have a world champion on court wearing their brand, Murray has been testing the clothing in training and gives feedback on performance.
The AMC (Andy Murray Castore) range was launched last week in the brand’s new store in London’s trendy Kings Road. Despite the torrential rain, the tennis star is clearly pleased and perhaps even a little stunned to be standing by the racks of clothing he has helped design and develop. He says: ‘We’re obviously just getting started. But we’ve been having conversations today where we were talking about what we might do 50 years into the future.’
Murray, who won Wimbledon in 2013 and 2016 and has two Olympic gold medals, seems to be developing a taste for business. He reads the business pages when he’s travelling and seems to have switched on to the opportunities.
Much of his wealth – estimated at £128million – is invested in funds run by banking giants ‘UBS, Rothschild, Julius Baer,’ he reels off.
But he says: ‘I kind of prefer investing in stuff I can see or enjoy a little bit more rather than just putting my money somewhere and waiting and not really understanding what’s going on with it.’
He’s put money into Tossed, a 25store salad bar chain that caught his eye in his capacity as an adviser to crowdfunding site Seedrs. ‘When I’m in New York there’s pretty much one on every corner but I’d never see them in the UK,’ he says.
Murray is clearly thoughtful about his long-term plans – but I ask if he takes advice? ‘There’s a guy who’s been responsible with working with my finances my whole professional life since I was 18 or 19 – he’s more than an accountant to me.’ He says he’d rather not give a name. But his biggest investment, he admits, was driven by more than just returns: a hotel outside Dunblane where he grew up. ‘It was closing down and I decided it would be something nice to do [for the town].’
He admits the £1.8million acquisition of the Cromlix was an ‘emotional’ decision, perhaps linked to the community bond in the town after what his mother Judy has described as a ‘dark, tragic time’ when a gunman took 17 lives at Murray’s school in 1996.
He says: ‘Everyone suggested it was not an easy thing to do and not a business opportunity that was definitely going to work.
‘Yes, I’m obviously very attached to where I grew up and it has the family attachment to it as well. My brother got married there. My grandparents had their golden jubilee celebrations there. It’s something I feel is a really nice thing to be doing. My whole family up there are extremely proud of it, and I hope the local community is as well.’
Murray admits he has ‘a tendency to overthink things a bit’: ‘I read a book a month ago – it’s called The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F**k. It was helping to understand what your values are and what’s important and not getting concerned about too many other things.’
Being in the spotlight at such a young age was clearly a challenge for someone keen to form an opinion and think things through. He backs away from discussing his own politics: ‘I’m not discussing my voting preferences. I did that once before when I was younger and I spent the next ten years of my life getting abused for it. So I’m not going to start talking about that any more.
‘It’s so divisive just now and I don’t think that’s a good environment for a country to be in. It’s a shame. It feels like you have to be on one side or the other. You’re not allowed to be in between or see a point of view from one side and potentially see the other side as well.’
But does the unfolding political drama make planning his post-tennis career that much harder?
‘I don’t think the uncertainty is a positive thing for any business. We need a solution and the quicker the better. Not one that’s a compromise one way or the other, one that’s going to be damaging to the economy or anything like that. I’m hoping there will be a solution soon.
‘What do I think the ideal solution would be?
‘I don’t know the answer to that, you’ve got many people, business leaders, politicians, that are a lot smarter than me that haven’t managed to find a solution but hopefully something that’s going to protect the long-term interests of the country.’
I prefer investing in stuff I can see rather than putting it somewhere I don’t really understand