Albion sign club-record sponsor deal

Albion are today celebrating the end of their two-year sponsor search as they signed a club record £750,000 deal with Walsall-based company HomeServe.

The Baggies will unveil their new kits in the next few weeks, after landing the most lucrative one-year sponsorship package in their history.

The club had been without a permanent sponsor since the end of the deal with T-Mobile in 2008, but sold sponsorship on a match-by-match basis for the second half of last season.

Albion chief executive Mark Jenkins said: "We are delighted to have HomeServe on board, particularly as this sponsorship brings together two highly-prominent West Midlands brands.

"In the current economic climate, the club is pleased our shirts will feature a successful locally-based company with an international profile at the start of a new initiative.

"We can now start branding our new home and away kits with the HomeServe logo and sales dates will be announced shortly."

The one-year agreement with HomeServe follows a summer of negotiations and the contract will see the company's logo and customer services telephone number emblazoned on the Baggies' home and away kits for the return to the Premier League in August.

It's the Green Lane-based company's first venture into sports shirt advertising, but the firm previously sponsored a stand at Walsall's Banks's Stadium.

As well as shirt advertising, the deal will also give HomeServe high-profile branding at the Hawthorns and other corporate perks on matchdays.

Several firms expressed an interest in taking over the sponsorship ahead of the club's last Premier League campaign in the 2008-09 season and came close to agreeing a deal.

But chairman Jeremy Peace was reluctant to set a precedent by reducing his asking price for the package. Albion spent the top-flight campaign with blank shirts and the economic downturn meant no deal was done last summer following relegation.

Then the club spotted a loophole in Football League regulations midway through the season and struck match-by-match deals with a number of companies.