Image courtesy of: ecb.co.uk
Waitrose will replace Brit Insurance when England tour Sri Lanka next year
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has announced that supermarket chain Waitrose will become the national team’s new sponsor from 2014 after Brit Insurance confirmed that they would not be renewing their sponsorship.
According to reports, the deal between Waitrose and ECB is rumoured to last for three years and be worth about £20 million.
Brit Insurance will still be England’s sponsor through the back-to-back Ashes series in July and at the end of the year when the national team travel to Australia, however, their logo will be replaced by Waitrose’s when the team tour Sri Lanka early next year.
The ECB pointed out that the move from the financial industry to a high-street supermarket chain was aimed at making a larger proportion of the general public aware about who was sponsoring their national cricket team.
Waitrose, who are part of the John Lewis Partnership, have 291 branches across England, Scotland and Wales and ECB chief executive, David Collier, believes the deal will help “engage further with a mass, family audience”.
“We are delighted to welcome Waitrose as the new sole sponsor of our England teams,” Collier added. “The organisation begins their relationship with the sport with one of our marquee partnerships, and as a brand with a rich history synonymous with quality, they are a perfect fit for the ECB and our values.”
ECB commercial director, John Perera, was equally as excited about the deal, and said: “This partnership is especially pleasing for us as we welcome another high profile, high-street brand into our ever-expanding commercial partner family. I would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to Brit who has been an excellent and valued partner of the ECB since 2010, and will remain as Team Sponsor until April 2014.”
Waitrose are the fourth commercial company to sponsor the England cricket team after Tetley Bitter, Vodafone and Brit Insurance, and Mark Price, managing director of Waitrose, believes this partnership will help boost the reputation of both the company and cricket in general.
“We currently export our products to a quarter of the world’s countries and associating Waitrose with this great national and international sport will enable us to build our brand globally,” Price said.