Warriors switch brews to take the Lion's share

By DITA DE BONI

They're blue and white, mate, but that hasn't stopped the Warriors becoming Red men.

Yesterday, Lion Breweries announced its flagship mainstream brand, Lion Red, would become the newly renamed New Zealand Warriors' "official beer."

The Lion Red logo will also be on the team's jersey sleeve.

The move comes after DB Breweries ended its long sponsorship of the team a few months ago.

Vodafone will remain the Warriors' "naming rights" sponsor, and Lion will share "main sponsor" status with Puma sportswear.

Lion's Graham Seatter, who was a prime mover behind the deal, would not reveal how much the brewer had paid for the sponsorship.

He said he saw it as a long-term partnership between the organisations.

"The time is right for Lion Red to become involved with the Warriors, with the new ownership, new management, a new coaching team and new players," he said, referring to Eric Watson's two-thirds purchase of the team in October.

"There's a reasonable chance the Warriors are on the way up. It's time to take a bit of a risk."

It is understood DB Breweries paid several millions for its sponsorship of the original DB Bitter Warriors over its formative years. DB scaled back its involvement in the late 90s as the team's fortunes on the field waned.

In February 1999, Vodafone replaced DB as a main sponsor of the team, and became part of a group of sponsors, including Bartercard, which chipped in $1.5 million a year.

DB says it was talking to the new Warriors management about renewing a sponsorship arrangement late this year when the deal with Lion was being struck.

DB's sponsorship contract with the Warriors became null and void when Cullen Investments bought into the team in September. The brewer says it received a sponsorship renewal proposal on November 24 after an initial meeting on October 12 and subsequent meeting on November 13.

But on December 8, DB received a fax stating that the proposal was being withdrawn, as the new owners had entered into a commercial arrangement with another brewery.

DB sponsorship manager Peter Wills says the company was disappointed it did not get a chance to bid for the sponsorship contract - "with the way it was handled, given our excellent business relationship with the Warriors since their inception."

Lion Nathan confirmed it had been in talks with the Warriors for around two months.

The two brewers have a history of taking over each other's sponsorships.

In 1999 DB took over from Lion as a major sponsor of Wellington Rugby, and agreed to back the Hurricanes Super 12 team until 2002.

Lion said at the time that it was not unhappy about the deal.

"We had an opportunity to sponsor if we wanted to pay that sort of money, but we did not think it was worth it."

Also last year, DB pulled out of sponsoring the Hero Parade, saying it was reluctant to match Lion's "considerably greater bid."