Meet the best friends behind fast-growing Castore rival Montirex
Montirex, a sportswear brand founded by two best friends, has predicted another huge jump in its sales and profit this year as it seeks to take on rival Castore.
The Liverpool-headquartered business has revealed it is eyeing a turnover of around £130m for 2025, up from the £76.7m it achieved last year and £33.4m in 2023.
The company has also predicted its pre-tax profit will reach almost £34m this year, up from £20.8m in 2024 and £3.5m in 2023.
Montirex was set up by best friends Daniel Yuen and Kieran Riddell-Austin six years ago and is preparing to expand into Europe in the next three years.
The business added it is also looking to break into North America by 2030.
Can brand take on Castore?
Montirex is hoping to share in the success of fellow apparel brand Castore, which also started out on Merseyside.
The sportswear brand was founded in 2016 by two Merseyside brothers and was headquartered in Liverpool until relocating to Manchester a few years ago.
The business is now worth in the region of £1bn and has partnerships with the likes of Premier League clubs and F1 teams.
In October 2024, Morning Wire reported that Castore’s turnover surged from £115m to £190.3m in the year to 4 February, 2024, while it went from a pre-tax profit of £14.6m to a pre-tax loss of £28.8m.
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Montirex almost doubles headcount in one year
Montirex co-founder Kieran Riddell-Austin said: “We originally launched in response to bigger brands downgrading quality while increasing the prices of their sportswear. We were confident we could provide an affordable and stylish alternative.
“We’re hugely grateful to our loyal customers who’ve backed our vision and supported us on this incredible journey so far.
“Montirex simply wouldn’t have grown so quickly without their support – in return, we’ve committed to carefully managing each stage of growth to make sure our success is sustainable and without compromising on quality.
“It makes us really proud that each step along the way has created new jobs – going from two employees to 100+, we’ve almost doubled headcount in the last 12 months alone.
“As we’ve built our team, we’ve developed a great workplace culture while striking a fine balance between the performance and price of our products, which has proven its worth so far.”
Co-founders only shareholders in brand
Montirex co-founder Daniel Yuen added: “We’ve achieved this with no investors.
“By retaining 100 per cent of the business, we’ve learned so much along the way and continue to make improvements – from growing our quality assurance team to ensuring that we’re working with sustainable yarns and ethical production standards.
“We’re rising to the challenge of not compromising on quality while meeting the expectations of our customers and navigating increasing production costs while seeking to minimise our impact on the environment.
“That’s not always easy but the learnings we’ve already gained have only strengthened our resolve and commitment to the brand – we’re really looking forward to growing Montirex even further in the next five years and beyond.”
By contrast, Castore’s shareholders include Sir Andy Murray as well as the likes of billionaire brothers Mohsin and Zuber Issa, New Look founder Tom Singh and PureGym co-founders Peter Roberts and Brian Scurrah.
Other notable shareholders also include The Gym Group founder John Treharne, Eric Fellner, the co-chairman of Working Title Films and Arnaud Massenet, the co-founder of Net-a-Porter.