The A-League’s sole New Zealand-based team, Wellington Phoenix, has confirmed a three-year sponsorship agreement with Huawei.
The deal will see the telecommunications manufacturer’s logo plastered on the front of the football club’s kit.
“I am delighted that Huawei see the alignment between themselves building a great brand in NZ and the Phoenix building a great club,” Phoenix general manager, David Dome, said.
“It is fantastic that the strategic direction the club is taking has been bought into with a huge show of confidence by one of the world’s top technology companies.”
Huawei corporate affairs manager, Andrew Bowater, said that while the brand is well-known in many markets, it remains relatively new in NZ.
“We are excited about working with the Phoenix to support them in their goals, and to help us introduce Huawei to football fans here in NZ,” he said.
The new contract is not Huawei’s first sports-related engagement in NZ, having sponsored the All Whites for an international friendly with China on November 14, 2012. The match took place in Shanghai to celebrate 40 years of diplomatic relations between the two nations.
Huawei works with all major telco operators in NZ, and is a key contributor to the Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) and Rural Broadband Initiative projects.
In April, it was selected to build Telecom NZ’s 4G/LTE network, which is expected to go live next month.
Having visited NZ in May, CEO and founder, Ren Zhengfei, confirmed Huawei’s commitment to the NZ market, stating that Huawei hopes to “strengthen and enhance the win-win cooperation model with the ICT industry in NZ through this visit, and hopes in future to extend such models to other Huawei operations around the globe.”
He also said “NZ is one of Huawei’s most important strategic markets and is very valuable to us.”
Nermin Bajric is IDG's coordinator for the Reseller News NZ website. His primary point of contact is email via: nermin_bajric@idg.co.nz
