Wrexham’s new investors have revealed for the first time exactly why they bought into the club owned by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.
It was announced earlier this week that the New York-based Allyn family, which made its fortune in medical manufacturing, had acquired a minority stake in the Red Dragons. They previously owned Welch Allyn Inc for more than 100 years before selling up to Hill-Rom in 2015 for $2.05 billion in cash and stock.
The family has since turned its focus to investments and has now formed Red Dragon Ventures LLC alongside Reynolds and McElhenney. In an article on the official Wrexham AFC website, it said this would “help fuel the club’s lofty ambitions, as well as those of the broader Wrexham community”.
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The new company’s first step was to purchase a majority stake in the city’s Wrexham Lager brewery, with plans to export the beer to North America. Reynolds and McElhenney revealed their investment in a YouTube video in which they said they were “Literally speechless,” communicating only through telegraph keys.
However, beyond the initial statement regarding the Allyn’s family’s involvement in Wrexham, details of how it came about and why has been hard to come by – until now. Eric Allyn, manager and chief investment officer of the Allyn Family Office, has disclosed further information in an interview with Syrcacuse.com – a local news outlet in the United States city where the family has already spent large sums of money on community projects.
The former Welsh Allyn chairman revealed the family came into contact with the two actors via an investment adviser at JP Morgan. Reynolds and McElhenney were reported to be actively seeking investors at the time, with a particular focus on helping the wider Wrexham area to prosper.
Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have become co-owners of Wrexham Lager (
Wrexham Lager/YouTube)
The Allyns already have a track record of investing in community schemes, including Syracuse’s Salt City Market, and believe there are huge similarities between the two industrial cities.
Eric Allyn said: “Wrexham was a mining town, a steel town, working-class oriented with lots of breweries. Then the steel and mining collapsed and the breweries collapsed, and the city really collapsed in on itself. We know we can’t reproduce Welch Allyn, but at least we can have investments we can connect to. We love to invest in great companies.”
Meanwhile, Allyn’s daughter, Kaleen, who is head of private market investments for the family, said the money injected into Wrexham Lager will help the brewery to thrive and expand into the United States. “We really think it’s important to invest for strong economic returns and to uplift communities,” she said.
While the Allyn family are said to be enthusiastic about their new focus on Wrexham, they have also made clear that they will continue making philanthropic investments in Syracuse. “We believe in Syracuse,” said Eric Allyn.
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