Chinese conglomerate Suning Holdings Group, which owns Inter Milan, has taken on naming rights to a number of the Italian Serie A football club’s properties as part of a wide-ranging sponsorship agreement.
The multi-year agreement is effective immediately and grants Suning naming rights to the club’s training ground. In a tribute to Inter’s former owner, the facility will now be known as ‘The Suning Training Centre in memory of Angelo Moratti’.
Suning will also sponsor the club’s youth training centre, which has been renamed as ‘The Suning Training Centre in memory of Giacinto Facchetti’. Facchetti was a former Inter player and owner.
In addition, Suning will serve as Inter’s official training apparel partner for both the senior and youth teams.
Suning will benefit from significant brand exposure at Inter’s training facilities through pitch-side advertising boards, prime logo positioning on main partner displays and prime positioning on background LED boards during press conferences.
Suning will also receive brand visibility at all home matches played by Inter at the San Siro stadium. Its branding will feature on LED advertising boards inside the ground, while it will receive secondary logo positioning on media backdrops and partner displays, as well as on the tunnel entrance at the San Siro.
Other benefits include VIP hospitality and ticketing offers, the use of a global brand ambassador and numerous sponsorship activation opportunities.
“This partnership is an important step for Inter as we continue to more effectively monetise the value of our assets," Inter's chief revenue officer, Michael Gandler, said. "Through this partnership Suning can expect major branding opportunities, increased global media coverage and direct fan engagement on Inter’s digital and media platforms. We also expect to further develop other core areas of our business through Suning including, e-commerce, retail and media.”
Sun Weimin, vice-chairman for Suning Commerce Group, added: “As one of the most popular foreign clubs in China, our partnership with Inter will allow us to boost our brand awareness and brand recognition in China and other strategic markets in Asia. It will also help to establish the Suning.com brand in Europe and we look forward to activating this activity together with Inter in the future.”
Suning completed its takeover of Inter in June and set a target of restoring the status of the Italian outfit to being one of the world’s top 10 football clubs. During a shareholders’ meeting to confirm the takeover, 3,263,021,485 new ordinary shares in Inter were assigned to Suning. The resolution was part of the agreement that through the purchase of ordinary shares allowed Suning to acquire a majority stake of 68.55 per cent in Inter for around €270m ($281m).
Inter is currently seventh in Serie A after 17 games of the 2016-17 season.