Head to Head
Burrdamakes a splash in football kits
Burrda, part of Pilatus Sports Management, has signed a number of high-profile British football clubs to sponsorship deals; it’s the start of their plans for the UK and European markets, as Charles Diab, General Manager of Pilatus, explains…
SGB: Burrda has signed a Premiership club [Wolves], Watford FC and the Belgium national team to wear their kits – that’s quite a flurry of activity. Was that deliberately to make an impression? Charles Pilatus: It is, of course. We spotted a niche in the market in the Middle East that we wanted to work on, and we had a five-year plan to work on that. One year before our plan to expand outside of that region, an opportunity came on the back of signing the Egypt national handball team; we were introduced to the British national handball team, which broke us into Europe. We signed up the British team, and we didn’t expect to do much more than that this year. When we made that signing, opportunities just started to appear. When we signed the deal with Wolverhampton Wanderers, we were speaking to three different Premiership clubs about supplying their kits. But we wanted to work with Wolves because of the instant rapport we had with the club; we had similar ambitions – they were going to be the little guys in the Premiership trying to stay in there and move on, and we were the challenger brand coming into the market breaking in there, and we had similar philosophies on how we wanted to operate, so we decided to work together.
I was looking for other teams to work with in
the UK, and the opportunity for Watford came up. We looked at the leadership of the club, and
Belgium national team
the philosophy again, and we wanted to work with them. Leicester City also came up, and we struck a deal with them too. We made those three signings and were very excited and pleased with them – that would be a great way to begin our life in the UK and Europe, with those three teams starting in the same year. For us, sponsorship means brand recognition, so people know who we are. Our business life doesn’t centre around only that, necessarily – we use it for people to see we are a brand, and we are one that is on the back of professional football players. We want consumers to know we make a very high quality brand and that when the time is right we are going to enter the UK and European market with our active wear line. Then they’ll know the company, and know the brand, and want to buy that as well.
SGB: The clubs you’re with are very much part of their communities; was that part of the appeal? Charles Pilatus: That community spirit was part of it, sure. They were the kind of clubs we wanted to get into the Premiership with. We weren’t ready to handle a top-four team; we wanted to go after a strong community team. In Wolverhampton, they’re a single-city team which is very appealing, though there are a lot of teams in the wider area. Watford is very, very community oriented, as is Leicester City. At Wolves you have a Premiership club, and the people are so down to earth; I said we spoke with three other clubs, and Wolves made an impact on me at a personal level. Yet they’re in the top flight of one of the world’s most-watched leagues. It’s also because they
are what we see as ‘challenger’ teams, teams that are fighting
22 SGB SPORT OCTOBER 2010
Watford benefactor Sir Elton John (left) with Burrda’s Charles Diab
to improve and be the best they can be – and that’s very much how we see ourselves as a brand.
SGB: What marks you out as a brand, compared to the competition? Charles Pilatus: I think it’s our attitude. If you came to our offices you would see we all live the same challenger attitude. We know what we’re up against. It’s a multi-billion-dollar market and here you have this challenger brand coming in and trying to compete against the big guys. Everything we do as a company, we are challenging ourselves to do the best that we can. Materials we use aren’t going to be a whole lot
different from our competitors – but because of our size, we have other advantages. Our turnaround time is shorter than most of theirs at the moment, for example. So we might be able to use materials in the market and get them out quicker, you see.
SGB: What’s the plan for the active wear line?
Charles Pilatus: Autumn-Winter 2011 we will be bringing it to market. This Autumn we will be showing the new collection to retailers, and we’ll hopefully get some pre-bookings together ready for next year.
S
www.burrda.com
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