North West Business

A supporters' group looking to buy Blackburn Rovers has told Insider it wants to open talks with existing owner Venky's. The Blackburn Rovers Supporters Investment Trust has raised more than £500,000 since a campaign to buy the club launched last week.

The trust was set up by Wayne Wild and financial adviser Daniel Grabko. Wild is the director of Darwen-based WEC which has been a commercial partner and sponsor of Rovers since 2008. He told Insider that the initial target of the trust is to raise £10m.

Wild said: "There is not a currently a timeframe because Venky's has not started talking to us. As the numbers get higher we hope people will see it as a viable option."

The trust wants to bring the club into community ownership. Poultry company Venky's took over at Ewood Park in 2010, but the change in ownership has been unpopular with many fans and led to matchday protests.

Wild said: "We have had no contact with Venky's directly. We have people are trying to contact them. We have not put anything official to them, but we have had no official response from them and we want to open a dialogue."

The trust said that the response to the fundraising campaign has been "fantastic".

"We have had a lot of people offering to help including experts and people around the world – it has been fantastic. We are currently working on a number of initiatives to raise public and business awareness. Local businesses are key," Wild added.

"At the moment, we're looking for help from an experienced business marketer to try and get help from local businesses in Lancashire."

The club has also sold central defender Chris Samba to Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala. Insider understands that some of the income raised by the sale will go to Barclays Bank to keep the club's overdraft in check and reassure the bank that the club will not go overdrawn later in the season.

It has been reported that the club were due to pay £10m to the bank by 31 December 2011, although this has not been confirmed by the club. It was also reported last month that a £2m 'goodwill payment' was made to the bank.