‘Making a difference’ unites Shawbrook Bank and Saracens Rugby Club in multi-year partnership.
Shawbrook Bank has announced it is entering into a multi-year partnership with Championship rugby union side, Saracens.
At a glance
Shawbrook Bank has announced it is entering into a multi-year partnership with Championship rugby union side, Saracens.
The Bank, founded in 2011, offers specialist property and business finance in addition to personal loans and savings products. It will support Saracens as they seek to return to the Premiership and re-cement their standing as one of Europe’s most successful rugby union teams, a decade after winning their first English league champions title and a decade on from Shawbrook’s own inception.
Shawbrook describes itself as ‘proudly different’ and, as a specialist business operating in specialist markets, uses a balance of expert people and progressive technology to consistently deliver positive outcomes for customers - from reliably great savings rates or transparent loan pricing for consumers, to tailored products for professional property investors and businesses of all shapes and sizes right across the UK.
This day-in-day-out experience of ambition presents an obvious synergy with the north London club as they challenge for the Championship title, and promotion, in order to deliver Premiership rugby for a fan base complementary to Shawbrook’s own customer and intermediary audience.
Another key factor behind the partnership is Shawbrook and Saracens shared belief in inclusivity. The Club has been taking great strides to address gender inequality within professional sport by investing heavily in its women’s rugby team and its netball team, the Saracens Mavericks. Shawbrook, too has taken steps to improve inclusion within the bank and the wider financial services sector and will work with Saracens to support charitable and grassroots initiatives. Saracens also has a strong commitment to its surrounding community, with the Saracens High School opened in 2018 to raise the aspirations and improve the academic attainment of young people living in one of the most disadvantaged communities in the local area.
As part of the sponsorship Shawbrook will also provide ongoing financial support to the 20 year old ‘Saracens Foundation’, whose mission is to transform lives on and off the pitch to build stronger communities. As the Club’s Charitable arm, the foundation delivers a wide range of initiatives, all designed to use sport to bring about positive social change and improve the lives of local people, with a focus on those who often find themselves excluded from participation.
From 18th April 2021, Shawbrook will feature on all three of Saracens’ team kits and will have a significant presence at their stadiums. And, forming a natural extension of Shawbrook’s vision for a technologically innovative future, is the new ‘Shawbrook Stats Centre’, a portal designed to bring the bank’s data-driven philosophy to deliver additional value for fans and journalists alike by sharing key player information and stats across multiple platforms.
Shawbrook will also have use of a large corporate box for every home game to help enhance existing and develop new relationships across all its specialist markets.
Lucy Wray, CEO at Saracens commented:
“We are delighted to complete this new partnership with Shawbrook. We both consistently strive to be the leaders in our respective fields, and we share a deep commitment to diversity and inclusivity. Following the recent announcement of the StoneX partnership, this is another great milestone for the Saracens family as we look towards an exciting future. We look forward to the rest of this season as we hope to return to some normality and push towards end of season goals across all three Saracens teams. It will be great to have Shawbrook by our sides as we do so.”
Neil Rudge, Managing Director for Shawbrook Bank’s Business Finance Division added:
“Like Saracens, Shawbrook is an ambitious organisation and one committed not only to thinking differently in the way we work, but also to making a difference – to our customers, our people, those professionals we work alongside and to the communities in which we operate. This alone is powerful, but there are so many other elements which make this partnership so exciting.
We know how vital it is for organisations like ours to champion inclusion and work to encourage diversity from the ground-up and being able to sponsor all three of Saracens’ high-profile teams makes this partnership all the more special. We look forward to seeing the men’s and women’s rugby and Mavericks netball sides go from strength-to-strength over the next few years in pursuit of their title ambitions.
The incredible work done in support of local and regional communities by the Saracens Foundation is also something that aligns with our own values and will resonate with everyone at Shawbrook. This goes beyond just financial support and helps facilitate volunteer work by Shawbrook staff and across our broad network of partners, as well as fundraising in support of many causes that are close to heart.
Standing out and being different has always been part of the DNA at Shawbrook, and this partnership will help focus more energy into making a difference across the areas that are important to us as a business, to our partners and, importantly, to our customers and the communities in which we work.”