For the next three years the Eastbourne event will be known as the Nature Valley International. The announcement sees the General Mills food brand Nature Valley build on its existing partnership with tennis following its entry into the sport in 2016 as the Official Snack Bar of British Tennis and building on its successful 2017 integrated campaign ‘The Court is Yours’ which helped drive people to the LTA Court Finder to find their nearest court to play on. The award-winning campaign was supported through an ambassadorial partnership with Eastbourne’s British No.1 Johanna Konta. The headline partnership will provide Nature Valley and British Tennis with the opportunity to help get the British public active and playing tennis by harnessing the excitement that is generated through the events each year. Scott Lloyd, LTA chief executive, said, “We are extremely excited to extend our partnership with Nature Valley into the title sponsorship of three of our iconic summer grass court events at Nottingham, Birmingham, and Eastbourne. “No other pre-Grand Slam circuit in the world can rival the long-standing tradition these tournaments embody, with former champions including the likes of Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, and more recently Andy Roddick, Novak Djokovic and Caroline Wozniacki. “Nature Valley has been building on its commitment to the sport and this new partnership extension highlights the tremendous success of the relationship. We both share our goal to get Britain active and healthy. “Nature Valley will continue to play an important role in helping more people play tennis more often and creating more historic championship moments.” Richard Williams, marketing director General Mills Northern Europe, said, “At Nature Valley, our vision is to be the world’s most iconic snack bar brand so we are delighted to become the headline partner for such an iconic part of the global tennis calendar. “Having more than quadrupled our investment in the sport since we first started in 2016, this elevated sponsorship deal is a demonstration of Nature Valley’s unwavering commitment to British Tennis from the grassroots right to its premier summer events and represents our largest global sports partnership since the 2012 Olympics. “Our global brand ethos is about encouraging people to get outdoors in nature and we look forward to fuelling large scale tennis participation over the next three years and helping inspire the tennis stars of the future with an equal ambition to have a Nature Valley bar in every tennis kit in Britain.” Fans have never been more engaged in LTA summer events, with ticket sales already up on average 50 per cent compared to 2017 across all three events at Nottingham, Birmingham, and Eastbourne.
