Admiral: Quietly, over a long period, it has grown a business supplying mainly into the sport trade and independent retailers

Admiral is technical sponsor for Malawi team Nyasa Bullets

Johannesburg, Gauteng, SA – Admiral first traded in South Africa in the 1970s and returned after isolation again in the late 80s, and while there have been changes, the business model has been largely consistent over that period: A brand offering technical clothing, footwear, and sports equipment for all teamwear sporting codes to the sports trade. In the early 2000s Admiral SA has been the technical sponsor to South African cricket, various PSL soccer teams and also supplied the SA team going to the Commonwealth Games.

LGB Distributors is the licensee for 17 sub-Saharan countries for Admiral Sports, and its core sports are soccer, cricket, netball, hockey, and athletics.

Notably, Admiral SA doesn’t offer fashion product, although some of the other Admiral distributors internationally do. For example, Admiral UK does a lot of retro soccer jerseys and Admiral Greece manufacture a lot of lifestyle apparel.

In South Africa, Admiral principally sponsors school 1st teams on the proviso that the rest of the teams purchase Admiral products. The clothing and kit bags then carry both the school’s and Admiral’s branding.

LGB Distributors GM Roger Livesey... 'Our business model moves a lot of products.'

“Admiral have always concentrated on teamwear sponsorships as opposed to individual sponsorship and in the 1970s, Admiral was worn by Kaizer Chiefs,” said LGB general manager Roger Livesey, “but the whole point about sponsorship is about being able to get a return on our sponsorship spend.

“In Malawi, LGB is the technical sponsor (apparel and equipment) to Nyasa Bullets, one of the country's most successful soccer teams, and we are negotiating with clubs in other African countries currently. We rely on good replica sales to offset our sponsorship.

“Other African countries offer many opportunities although there are many challenges,” he said.

“Generally speaking, in South Africa, the top tier teams will have many sponsors i.e. corporate sponsors like banks, breweries, etc, but one technical sponsor that supplies the apparel for the players and management with all the corporate branding.”

LGB imports its footwear and equipment from overseas suppliers, but all its clothing, socks, kit bags and allied products are locally manufactured. “We’ve been working with the same manufacturers locally for 20 years,” he said. “LGB can’t compete in advertising with the biggest international brands, but its model nonetheless moves a lot of products. I think we’re one of the biggest suppliers of cricket apparel to schools in South Africa, and we’re recognised suppliers in soccer, netball, hockey, and athletics.

“We have long-term relationships with our retailers, and to have continuity, we must have a large stockholding to supply the market and ensure the retailer has the confidence to offer our brands to their customers. We try to offer a same day despatch, ex-stock service of everything in our catalogue nationally.”

He said online retail was an area “which we’d like to expand as e-commerce is the largest growth channel in South Africa currently”.