Galgorm Collection sponsors Cullybackey Blues for three years

Galgorm Collection has agreed a three-year sponsorship of Cullybackey Blues FC, giving the amateur club a longer-term commercial commitment to invest in player development, training and facilities as it begins life in the second division of the Kinecx Energy Ballymena Saturday Morning League following promotion. The club strengthened its squad over the summer with the arrival of Danny Bell, Joe Dunlop, Jordan Stewart and Kaan Avci ahead of pre-season preparations and the start of competitive football in the Zala Sports Cup.

Galgorm Collection is a Northern Ireland hospitality group based at Galgorm, Co Antrim, employing more than 1,400 people across a portfolio of hotels, restaurants and golf experiences. The company does not publicly disclose turnover.

Cullybackey Blues FC is an amateur football club based in the village of Cullybackey, Co Antrim, competing in the Ballymena Saturday Morning League. The club does not disclose sponsorship-specific financial terms.

The partnership sits at the grassroots end of the sponsorship market, reflecting how a large regional hospitality employer allocates community sponsorship spend to clubs with direct ties to its own workforce rather than to national-level sport. Joel Barr, from Cullybackey Blues FC, said the support would let the club invest well beyond its immediate playing commitments and strengthen its role within the community.

Galgorm Collection chief executive Colin Johnston said the partnership was particularly meaningful given how many of the group's more than 1,400 staff and their families are based locally, and that it reflected shared values between sport and hospitality around dedication, resilience and collaboration.

The deal adds Cullybackey Blues to a wider community programme that already includes the North West 200 and the Antrim Camogie minor squad, extending Galgorm Collection's grassroots sponsorship activity from motorsport and county-level GAA down to junior amateur football.

DUP Bannside councillor Tyler Hoey, who helped arrange the introduction between the two parties, said the agreement would help strengthen the club as it progresses through the new season, illustrating how local elected representatives can act as informal brokers in small-scale community sponsorship deals that fall well below the radar of national commercial sponsorship activity.

Source: Love Ballymena