Business in Brief: Brewery celebrates growth as MD takes stake; Leeds lawyers advise on Burnley FC deal; and more

Saltaire Brewery is celebrating six months of growth and development.

The Shipley-based brewery has taken on eight staff, become an accredited Living Wage employer and has announced its managing director Ewen Gordon has become a shareholder now owning 20% of the business.

After working at the brewery for four years, Gordon became managing director in 2015 and has since driven the company’s ambitious five-year growth plan. To recognise his contribution to the business, Tony Gartland, who founded the brewery in 2005, has sold 20% of his shares.

Gartland said: “Ewen has shown great commitment to Saltaire Brewery and produced fantastic results during his time leading on our ongoing investment programme. I’m pleased to celebrate his contribution with this sale so he can share in our long-term growth and future successes.”

Gordon said: “It’s an absolute honour to own a significant part of Saltaire Brewery and I’m extremely proud of how far we’ve come in recent years. This is an incredibly exciting period for the business as we’re about to enter a new era – watch this space.”

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Sports lawyers at Walker Morris in Leeds have advised Premier League team Burnley FC on its record-breaking shirt sponsorship deal with LaBa360, an international gaming company which provides customers with sports betting and casino products.

The deal is the biggest sponsorship deal in the club’s history and will see LaBa360’s brand printed on The Clarets’ home and away shirts in all competitions.  It will also feature in pitch side and generic branding at Turf Moor, as well as across online and social media platforms in the UK and internationally.

LaBa360 are joining the Clarets as the club prepares to embark on its first competitive European adventure for over 50 years, following their eye-catching seventh-place finish in the Premier League.

The new partnership is designed to enable Burnley Football Club to engage with a wider audience and expand a growing international fan base, while giving LaBa360 exposure in the most watched league in the world.

This latest deal continues the Walker Morris Sports Team’s run of successful commercial deals for football clubs.  The team has advised on 11 of the current Premier League shirt sponsorship, sleeve sponsorship, stadium sponsorship and kit supply deals and now acts for nine of the 20 Premier League Clubs.

Katie Reed from the Walker Morris Sports Teamsaid: “We’ve successfully advised Burnley FC for several years on a variety of issues including commercial contracts, Rule K disputes, and a number of transfers and players’ contracts as well as the contract for the reappointment of manager Sean Dyche in 2016, and we have now advised on the biggest sponsorship deal in the club’s history.

“Burnley enjoyed a great 2017/18 season finishing 7th in the Premier League and qualifying for the UEFA Europa League. We’re delighted the Club has enjoyed such recent success and are proud to work alongside such a great club, team, management and fans.”
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Kinect Energy Group has renewed its sponsorship of Huddersfield Town for an eighth season.

Kinect will be the sponsor of The White Rose Club for the next two years.

Managing director of Kinect Energy, Amar Hussain, said: “We are so proud of the team for again defying the odds to secure a second season of Premier League football, and we couldn’t be happier to continue supporting our local team.

“We wish the team all the best for the upcoming season and hope that the relationship between Kinect and Huddersfield Town FC will continue to prosper.”

Commercial director at Huddersfield Town, Sean Jarvis, said “I am delighted that Kinect Energy have continued to be a part of the fabric of this Football Club as we enter a second season in the Premier League.

“I am equally delighted that on match days The White Rose Club will now be in association with Kinect Energy. Amar and the whole team have gone through a period of transition over the past few months and having met some of the senior board members of Kinect I’ve no doubt the business will continue to grow and be even more successful.”