Waste and recycling firm United Resource Management has expanded its partnership with Australian NRL rugby league club the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles.
Under the new agreement, URM will serve as the main sponsor of the team’s away jerseys. The company already serves as the main sponsor of the Sea Eagles’ home kit. The new deal will run for the remainder of 2017.
As part of the deal, URM has donated the sternum sponsorship position on the front of the team’s away jerseys to charity partner Life Education. The non-profit organisation’s mascot, Healthy Harold, will appear on the shirt above the URM logo.
The Sea Eagles wore the new away strip for the first time during Saturday’s 16-8 defeat against the Penrith Panthers.
URM has been a Sea Eagles partner for 21 years and became the team’s main sponsor in September 2016. At the time, the team was embroiled in a legal dispute with then-major sponsor, food and beverages company Coco Joy, over unpaid fees.
Flavour and Life Food and Beverages (FAL), Coco Joy’s parent company, had claimed that its former chief executive Tim Xenos was not licensed to sign the deal in November 2015. In May 2016, FAL said it had terminated the contract but the team had insisted that the contract was still legally binding.
The dispute was settled earlier this year, with Australia’s Supreme Court having ruled in favour of the Sea Eagles.