International investment holding company Bidvest and its UK food service subsidiary BFS Group have agreed a one-year extension to their principal partnership with English Premier League football team Sunderland.
Under the agreement, Bidvest’s branding will remain on the front of Sunderland’s shirts during the 2014-15 season – the club’s eighth consecutive campaign in English football’s top flight.
Bidvest is headquartered in South Africa and Sunderland has an established standing across the African continent through football and business partnerships in South Africa, Tanzania and Ghana. Bidvest made its debut on Sunderland’s shirt during the recently concluded 2013-14 season.
Sunderland commercial director Gary Hutchinson said: “We want to continue to increase our international commercial activity to help strengthen our aims to be a top football club and our partnership with a company with the global credentials of Bidvest Foodservice is helping us to achieve those aims. Through our existing work in Africa and new developments in the coming months in Asia and the USA, we are working to increase the club’s presence across a range of territories.”
The Bidvest Group also owns South African Premier Soccer League club Bidvest Wits, which has a partnership agreement with Sunderland.