New DHL Stormers CEO Johan le Roux has confirmed that the board and the shareholders have approved the decision to change the company’s registered name from Western Province Professional Rugby PTY LTD (WPPR) to Stormers Rugby.
Le Roux, who is a major role-player in the Red Disa Consortium as head of Fynbos Ekwiteit, was speaking at a media briefing with new Stormers Director of Rugby John Dobson, at the DHL Stadium in Cape Town on Tuesday.
Last month, the Red Disa consortium concluded its equity deal to secure a controlling shareholding in the professional arm. The consortium owns 74 percent of Stormers Rugby with the Western Province Rugby Football Union (WPRFU) retaining the remaining 26 percent.
“The motive for the investors is to save the club and to make sure this region retains the heritage of Western Province rugby and the Stormers,” said Le Roux.
“The reasons for this (the name-change) is two-fold. It’s to closely align our company’s profile with that of our top team. We also think it will allow easy differentiation between the professional rugby entity which will be known as Stormers Rugby and the entity responsible for amateur rugby, the (WPRFU).
“We found the similarity in names leads to confusion around the identities of the entities and also leads to confusion and also their roles in rugby. We believe a simple name change will at least take a first step towards helping both the professional and community entity to establish it’s own identity for the benefit of both.”
“The company name change will affect the names of any of the teams that competes on the field. The WP team will continue to compete in the Currie Cup and age group competitions.”
Le Roux believes the Stormers are in a good position to convert their new investment into sustained success.
“We think Western Province Rugby, or the Stormers, is well placed to be the strongest financial club in the country,” Le Roux said.
“From my family’s perspective, the investment is funded from the philanthropic balance sheet. Ardagh, our Irish partners, see this as a community investment.
“It’s not profit-driven, it’s purely in the interest of rugby and what it means to the society. It is important for us that we can get to financial stability. There is no appetite from us to keep funding financial losses.”
“My ambition for the Stormers is closely aligned with fans,” Le Roux added.
“I want to build a team that is consistently successful and regularly competes for and wins major trophies. In simple terms, it’s about building a team with enough quality and depth to compete in the URC and Champions Cup at the same time.
“It’s easier said than done, as we found out over the weekend. While this is a generic ambition, there are a couple of things that makes the Stormers different and gives us a real opportunity of doing this. We operate in a world-class city that has international appeal for coaches and players, as well as fans and sponsors, and we play in a world-class stadium.
“The rugby environment in this region is unrivalled, in terms of sheer volume of diverse talent that comes through the school, university and club system. We want to retain that community and club feeling.
“We don’t have ambitions of becoming a big-money club. This is not a vanity project. It’s not funding continued losses. We want to re-invest the growth in revenue into the team.”
