Priory Concept Group sponsors Highcliffe Hawks youth kits

Highcliffe Hawks Youth Football Club has unveiled new kits sponsored by Priory Concept Group, giving the fire safety and security company branding across all of the club's youth teams ahead of the new season, at a club serving the Highcliffe and Christchurch area on the Dorset coast. The deal is notable because Hawks chairman Dave Town is also a director of Priory Concept Group. The club fields 16 boys teams from under-7s to under-15s alongside a girls' programme for ages 5 to 11, and was named Hampshire FA Charter Standard Club of the Year in 2019. The club's chairman confirmed the sponsorship follows Priory Concept Group's earlier support of local sporting events, including sponsoring AFC Bournemouth's Corporate Golf Day.

Priory Concept Group is a Bournemouth-based fire safety and security company specialising in fire door installation, maintenance and compliance services, serving clients including councils, retailers, government buildings, airports and local businesses across the UK.

Highcliffe Hawks Youth Football Club is based at Wingfield Recreation Ground in Highcliffe, Dorset, serving the local area including Christchurch.

The sponsorship is not an arm's-length commercial transaction: Hawks chairman Dave Town also holds a director role at Priory Concept Group, meaning the sponsoring company's leadership overlaps directly with the club's own governance.

Hawks chairman and Priory Concept Group director Dave Town said it was thrilled to celebrate the launch of the new sponsorship and brand-new kits over the weekend, and that it was incredible to see so many children proudly wearing their new Priory kit for the season ahead.

Town added that supporting grassroots sport and investing in the local community is a core part of who Priory Concept Group are, saying that bringing young people together through sport builds leadership, teamwork and resilience, values he said extend far beyond the pitch.

For the sector, the deal illustrates a pattern seen elsewhere in grassroots sponsorship, where a business owner or director channels company marketing spend into a club they are personally involved in running, a structure that differs from conventional third-party sponsorship even where the connection is disclosed openly, as it is here.

Source: Yahoo News UK / Bournemouth Echo