One year ago Belkin stepped in to save the biggest Dutch cycling team after Rabobank had stopped their sponsorship and the name of the American company first appeared on the jerseys at the Tour de France. Now the team's future has been thrown into uncertainy again after Belkin have announced that they will end their collaboration at the end of the season.
By the end of 2014 Belkin will exit as the title sponsor of the team. The Belkin Pro Cycling TEAM will start an immediate search for a new title sponsor. The Team is disappointed by the exit, since it got a lot of positive feedback on the sponsorship.
Belkin entered into cycling last year with the aim to increase brand awareness and subsequently sales. While initial brand awareness results increased for the Belkin brand throughout Europe, the company strategy has changed to be more globally focused for all of the Belkin International brands: Belkin, WeMo and Linksys.
"It is unfortunate that this new collaboration is not going to be extended," managing director Richard Plugge says. "With the motto #ridethefuture we have generated a lot of goodwill the past year, in an environment that is still critically observed. Our innovative method and forward-looking team philosophy has brought the sport back where it belongs, with fans and stakeholders. Our performance, battle mode, transparency and accessibility have not gone unnoticed by the public and industry.
"We will now start an intensive search for a new sponsor to be able to continue the journey that we started. We have full confidence in the future and expect to appear with a new sponsor on the shirt at the start of the 2015 season. We are a Dutch procycling team with an international image and World Tour status, therefore we expect to find a new title sponsor. We were already in conversation with additional sponsors and still have sponsorship opportunities open for the upcoming Tour de France."
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