Winsford United bag a sponsorship boost

A leading Cheshire football club has landed a major sponsorship boost from UK storage giant Lock Stock.

Winsford United – the club that helped launch the stellar career of Everton and Wales legend Neville Southall – will now carry the company’s logo on their sleeves to the end of next season.

The tie-up comes as Lock Stock opens a raft of new storage parks across Cheshire.

Securing the sponsorship deal is a vital step for the revitalised Blues who were promoted to the Midlands Football League Premier Division as champions last season.

As well as fielding goalkeeping great Neville Southall, Winsford can also boast a modern day FA Cup celebrity in midfielder Daniel Kerr, who as captain of the Combined Services team handed over the trophy to Prince William ahead of last season’s final won by Crystal Palace against Manchester City.

Away from the Wembley glamour, it is vital for the club to attract sponsorship support such as that provided by Lock Stock who earlier this year opened their first site in Winsford, one of five the company are opening in Cheshire as part of a major expansion.

Winsford United Commercial Director Karl Woodward said:

“We’re a sleeping giant and the season is going very well after our promotion.

“We’re now seeing crowds of over 500 when two years ago we’d be lucky to get 120 there but in our heyday when I was a boy we’d get 2,000 when we were playing the likes of Gateshead and Barrow.

“In the early 90s we were drawing 2-2 late on against Wrexham in the FA Cup before losing 5-2, they went on to face Arsenal famously in the next round, and we were drawing 1-1 against Chester before they scored a late winner.

“We’re rebuilding with local players and a local manager and it’s vital to get the support of businesses in the local community like Lock Stock.

“Sponsorship like this is crucial and we need their backing because we have plans to turn Barton Stadium into a 4G pitch to make it a proper community hub because we’re very much a community club, we’re all local and no-one takes a wage.

“We cut the pitch, paint the fences and man the gates on a Saturday and we lend a hand behind the bar when it’s busy.”
Lock Stock Area Manager Richard Warner said: “We opened in Nat Lane in Winsford in June and the site is going very well and will have over 200 containers there soon catering for a range of customers from people moving house to local businesses.

“Like all our storage parks it has been developed to a high, professional standard and this approach has made us the biggest container-based operator of our kind in the UK.

“But we also like to get involved in the communities where we have sites and our backing for Winsford United is an example of that as was our support for local charity Changing Lives Together in the summer. 

“Now we’re getting behind the club and wishing them all the best in what has been a superb season so far, and as we go forward we will look to continue to support the local communities here and at our other Cheshire sites.”

Lock Stock, founded in Denbigh in North Wales in 2000, have over 5,700 storage units providing more than five million cubic feet of space at 40 storage parks across North and Mid Wales and the border counties. 

They estimate that over 60 per cent of their units are rented by people moving house or keeping treasured possessions but nearly 40 per cent, about 2,000, are used by used by a variety of businesses for storing materials, stock and equipment.

There is also a growing market from students looking to store possessions outside term time and Lock Stock also specialise in the off-site hire - and sale - of containers, delivered to location by their specialist lorry which can even bring a unit to your premises to fill or empty and store it at any of their locations.

For information about Lock Stock Self Storage, including off-site container hire, contact them on 01745 817 178 or go to: 

https://lockstock.biz/

Pictured - Lock Stock's marketing officer Ollie Beech with Winsford FC's Steve Jenyons, left, and Blake Robinson, right.