Castore appoints new investment director

Sportswear brand Castore has appointed Stuart Puddy as its newest investment director. Puddy confirmed the new position in a post on LinkedIn, where he said he was looking forward to working with the team “on the next stage of growth”.

He joins the company from JD Sports, where he spent nearly eight years overseeing mergers and acquisitions, initially as a manager before becoming head of the division in November 2021.

During his time at the sportswear giant, Puddy was credited with driving “rapid growth partly fuelled by acquisitive expansion into key global markets”.

Prior to JD, Puddy had served as an associate director for AlixPartners for over one year, working on both in solvent and insolvent scenarios in the realm of legal, sport and retail.

His experience in retail also extends to his work as an interim restructuring officer of Mamas & Papas, a role he held over seven months and revolved around working alongside an interim CEO to assist in the operational restructuring of the business.

His appointment at Castore comes at a time when the company is setting about on major expansion plans, having recently secured a 145 million pound investment back in November 2023 to fund such growth.

With the capital raise, the company said that it was hoping to further develop its global franchise portfolio, while expanding the reach of its mainline product range and investing in infrastructure systems.