Ineos Grenadiers is using a commercial agency in a bid to find a new co-title sponsor as its owner and main backer, Ineos, does not want to invest any additional funding, team management has said.
"It's fair to say that Ineos don't want to spend more money," confirmed John Allert, the Ineos Grenadiers CEO, with management also conceding it needed more money to be a so-called 'super team' competing to win Grand Tours.
"I can confirm that the team will exist into the next," Allert added of the period beyond 2026-28, speaking on a video call to media outlets including cyclingnews.
"We are very lucky to have owners that are very passionate about this sport, that are personally involved in the sport and they get on a bike. They've had numerous opportunities if they didn't want to be in the sport, to make that clear but they do want to be in the sport."
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He added that in order for the team to move back up a level - and compete with the likes of Visma-Lease a Bike, UAE Team Emirates and Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe - more money was needed.
"So it depends entirely on what happens with this commercial activity," Allert said of the team's future development. "They (Ineos) very clearly do want us to be a super team and they know what it takes to be a super team. I'm not going to put a number on that, but it's a number that's greater than what we're currently spending.
"You don't need to be that clued-up to realise there's a reason why we're trying to bring other people on that journey with us. There's value to be created for other brands and we don't necessarily feel we have to, need to, or want to, go it alone.
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"I've heard some bonkers rumours in the last couple of weeks about people buying us or investing in us or whatever else.
"We certainly have a commercial strategy that is an evolution of our strategy. We've appointed an agency and we're looking at commercial partnership opportunities, like most other teams are.
"It's a very crowded market. We haven't signed anybody. I'm not aware of us imminently signing anybody."
The change in circumstances for Ineos Grenadiers - being more cash-strapped than their biggest rivals - is not one many would have foreseen when Ineos boss, Jim Ratcliffe, bought Team Sky in 2019 and rebranded it.
Ratcliffe was said to be worth £21bn at the time and money was seen as no object. However, the team's main general classification riders at the time - Chris Froome and Egan Bernal - went on to have career-changing crashes.
Though Froome has since left, Bernal remains and continues to be paid one of the biggest salaries in cycling, which is now a major financial drag on the team.
Since Ratcliffe bought the cycling team, the sport has changed enormously and Ineos Grenadiers has failed to keep pace.
In the intervening years, Ratcliffe has also become a 30 per cent owner of Manchester United; a club that appears to be taking up far more of his time than his stake in cycling, which is much smaller in monetary terms.
