Associating his company name with Scottish sport's two most famous brands via this weekend's League Cup semi-finals is an experiment in raising profile Richard Branson-style according to the multi-millionaire owner of QTS.

Having built his rail maintenance firm from nothing in the past 22 years Alan McLeish is increasingly reaching out to international markets and sees sport and the Old Firm in particular, as a way of building global awareness.

"This is a toe in the water with the SPFL. We'll see how this goes and then take a view on it," he told HeraldSport.

"We've got to see, could we use that money better elsewhere, for example taking on more kids? So it's balancing the brand in terms of doing good with what we're trying to achieve. Build the brand but also help with the kids."

In saying so he was well aware, before committing to backing the closing stages of this season's League Cup, that there is a danger in the association given some of the darker aspects of the Old Firm rivalry, but McLeish felt it was the right risk at the right time and in making that calculation drew inspiration from one of his business heroes.

"At QTS we are keen that we have a brand we've worked really hard for, a brand I would like to think stands for quality of work, honesty and integrity, so if anyone sees QTS on any particular job they'll know they're maybe not the cheapest, but they'll be the best and you'll get even more value for money," said McLeish.

"Having seen the likes of Richard Branson, read his books, met the great man a couple of times and listened to him I realised that the quality of brand is very important and that's what we're trying to achieve with the SPFL, where our brand will get seen UK-wide which obviously it will with one particularly semi-final anyway. It is a fantastic combination of semi-finals."

While QTS has, for the past three years, supported Kilmarnock, the closest Premiership club to their South Lanarkshire base and also supports Scottish youngsters in a wide range of sports, rally drivers, ski-iers and volleyball players among them, he sees this as a launch of the brand at a different level.

"This will be seen virtually everywhere and that, as a brand, is important to us. The other stuff we do is like a personal thing for me, trying to support the kids," said McLeish.

"We would like to be involved on a bigger stage of sport with the brand about the place.

"It's brand awareness we get from the SPFL deal. We would never look at going into sponsorship of either of the Old Firm, unless you were doing it the way CR Smith did and do both. We're happy with Kilmarnock which is a good family club and local to us, so it's relevant and we're putting something back into the community."

The breadth of his sporting interest is extensive and - as he reveals in HeraldSport today - he would be willing to take his business knowhow into that arena in seeking to help improve the effectiveness of programmes, while he knows this deal will open the door to others.

"I 100 per cent think we'll get more offers coming in, so we've got to weigh up which are the right ones for us and it will give us the opportunity to do that," he said.

"However I would be more than happy with offering more (than just financial help). The way we've got it set up just now I could have a bit more time to help with that and I'd like to."