Bury St Edmunds-based facilities management company Servest are the first ever sponsors of the club’s U21 side. The Blues wore kit bearing the Servest name for the first time during last night’s 2-0 defeat to Cardiff City at Portman Road.
Group chief executive officer Rob Legge says Servest provides facilities for companies in many areas: "We’ve got about 14,500 people working for us, ranging from cleaning, security, catering, electrical engineering, things like engineering work for air conditioning, building fabrication, traditional plant work.
"Anything to do with building we can pretty much look after, pest control, hygiene, all the ancillary products.
"We’re part of a South African group, based out of Johannesburg, and we’re a UK group in our own right as well.
"Our head office is in Bury St Edmunds and we have offices in London, Harrogate, Birmingham and Rickmansworth.”
Although an Arsenal fan himself, he has close links with the Blues: "All of my wife’s family are Ipswich supporters, so it’s very much close to my heart to be involved, but we also wanted to look at the development of younger people.
"Part of our corporate responsibility is to look at the local area and develop local people. We’ve got our own apprentice scheme within the group, we only employ people locally for our office.
"So, when we had the opportunity to sponsor the U21 team we thought it was a really good fit with our organisation and we jumped at it. With Category One looming, it was a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor.”
The three-year deal is described as worth "a good five figures” and is index-linked with the academy receiving more in years two and three than it does in the first season. In addition to their name appearing on the U21 side’s shirts, Servest also get use of an executive box.
Legge says Servest are also looking at the possibility of providing services to Town: "We’re doing that now.
"We’ve had an opportunity to come in and we’ll be looking at the whole shooting match, but that will be down to [Town joint-MD] Ian [Milne] to have an opinion on, but we’re chatting to them.
"A good relationship is where both parties get something out of it and I think that’s certainly the plan here.”
Town academy sponsorship manager Simon Milton says the two parties have been talking for a while: "I’ve been speaking to Rob Legge and Servest for the last five or six months. They wanted to get involved in the club in some way.
"Once you start looking into what they do, they’re a very big company and it’s good that they’ve got their headquarters in Bury St Edmunds.
"Rob’s an Arsenal fan, but realises the importance of doing something locally. We sat down and sponsoring the U21s was an option I was thinking of introducing in the wake of the application for Category One, so it came at the right time.
"I’m absolutely delighted to have them on board, they’re a really good company. They’ve brought a lot of people here tonight and they’re going to do something similar at every U21 game to show people what they’re doing for us and it might also introduce more people to us.”
Milton says he’s been kept very busy since the launch of the Academy Association three weeks ago: "I’m delighted with the response we’ve received. There are obviously lots of people out there who would like to help.
"The packages are pitched at the right areas for people and it’s just a matter of constantly contacting people who have expressed an interest and getting them on board, people who have visited the website and signing up as academy friends.
"The first people who have signed up will start their first payments from the first couple of weeks in September and it then becomes ongoing.
"People genuinely want to help. They come on board, we put packages together, there’s no haggling, I don’t try to upsell, they don’t try to cut the price - this is what it is. People want to do something and they sign up.”
He says companies such as Servest sponsoring academy sides can forge a unique link with the club: "So many of the team sponsorships are tailor-made. Some people want branding and awareness and other people just want to be looked after and they want to get a little bit closer.
"Some people might stay in the same hotel as the team, meeting the players, the management coming over to meet and greet when they’re having a meal.
"We don’t sell that experience but if you sponsor to a certain level you can get that experience as a thank-you for your involvement in the club.
"Mick McCarthy completely understands what I’m trying to do and how I’m trying to do it and will offer any help that he possibly can.”