Fonterra to sponsor Shed 10 as part of mayor's plan

Auckland Mayor Len Brown with wife Shan Inglis at The Kingslander Hotel after being re-elected. Photo / APN

Fonterra is buying the naming rights for Shed 10 on Auckland's Queens Wharf - and will use its Anchor brand, the Herald understands.

Writing in the Herald yesterday, Auckland Mayor Len Brown said a major commercial sponsorship would be announced in the next fortnight as an alternative funding source to rates and growing debt.

Lower rates and reining in soaring debt are part of a six-pronged strategy that Mr Brown will hope turns attention away from his sex scandal and censure by councillors.

Fonterra could use sponsorship of Shed 10, refurbished into a cruise ship terminal/events space, to improve its reputation at home and abroad following last year's botulism scare.

Mr Brown's head of communications, Dan Lambert, said the commercial sponsorship referred to was confidential until announced. Fonterra did not respond on the issue.

Mr Brown began a series of media interviews yesterday after releasing a copy of six strategies for 2014 prepared by his office without input from councillors.

The Herald received a copy of the embargoed document at 1.50pm on Friday, more than two days before Mr Lambert released it to councillors at 10.33pm on Sunday, telling them it contained "no new announcements".

Councillor Cameron Brewer said Mr Brown's spin doctors had botched the mayor's re-entry strategy by thumbing their nose at a resolution late last year that there would be a stronger working relationship and accountability between the mayor and governing body.

Mr Lambert said the strategy document was an opinion piece based on priorities already agreed to by council and previous announcements.

Yesterday, Mr Brown told RadioLive that he and his wife, Shan Inglis, were a "very, very tight team". Asked if he loved his wife, Mr Brown said: "Oh yeah, I'm a fool. And in that sense you know, I'm working my way back".

The deal

* Fonterra lining up Shed 10 to promote its Anchor brand

* Mayor Len Brown says major commercial sponsorship imminent

* Fonterra and Mr Brown could use good news to polish their tarnished brands.