STEWART ROBERTSON hopes investment in the Commercial Department at Ibrox will pay dividends for Rangers after seeing income half during the last financial year.

Accounts for Rangers International Football Club plc released last week revealed that Commercial revenue had fallen from £651,000 to £258,000 in the space of twelve months.

Managing Director Robertson was brought on board just weeks after Dave King, Paul Murray and John Gilligan ousted the former Gers’ regime at a shareholder summit in March.

The former Motherwell director is at the forefront of the rebuilding job at Ibrox as the new hierarchy look to overhaul and improve every area after years of turmoil off the park.

A sharp rise in season ticket sales has given Rangers a timely financial boost this season and Robertson is confident there will be more positive financial news to come in the months ahead.

He told RangersTV: “We’ve taken a lot of steps already. The commercial department had been decimated in terms of the number of staff – they had gone from 21 people to three, and for a club of Rangers’ size and stature, that’s just crazy.

“We’ve appointed a new Head of Commercial in Scott Steedman, and he’s settling in well.

“We’ve recruited some more staff – three have already come on board and we are recruiting for another two.

Customer service is key, and, quite rightly, people were disappointed with the level of customer service they were receiving around about season ticket and hospitality renewals, so we have addressed that.

“There has been an IT upgrade, the ticket system is just about to go through an upgrade and the phone system is to be upgraded, so hopefully people will find it much easier to deal with the club, and all of that should help to generate more revenue.

“On top of that, with the club being in a better place, advertising and sponsorship revenues should hopefully start to climb.

“We won’t see a massive difference this year, but we are laying a lot of foundations for next year and we should see a step-up next season.”