CEO of Shepherd Neame, Jonathan Neame, on what cricket, Kent, and community mean to their sponsorship

Shepherd Neame is Britain's oldest brewer. Since 1573, they’ve been on the same site, brewing using the same source of water from their own artesian well. For over twenty years, the company serving the south-east has sponsored Kent County Cricket Club, supporting the cornerstone of Kentish sport through two decades of change in the sport itself. In this interview, we spoke with CEO of Shepherd Neame since 2003, Jonathan Neame, about the driving forces behind this long-standing partnership. 

Firstly, we feel it is important to undertake sponsorships when you are a business of our type as our pubs are at the heart of our communities, so it's essential that you put something back, that you invest in that community. We also want to attract new customers who don't necessarily know our beer or are new to the area, so in that respect, supplying local high profile sports teams is an attractive thing to do. Kent is a cricket-mad county, we only have one single dominant football team, which is quite unusual in England, and therefore Kent County Cricket Club (KCCC) is the biggest sporting venture. We do sponsor many other clubs at a slightly lower level including the Kent Cricket League, Surrey Cricket League, Canterbury Rugby Club, Bromley Football Club and Maidstone Football Club. But of all of those, the most supported would be Kent County Cricket Club. I think that beer and cricket are closely associated in a very appealing way as a player or a watcher. So that's how it came about.