YONEX, the world’s No.1 badminton brand, is preparing to celebrate a major milestone in the company’s long and outstanding history. When the Yonex All England Open Championships take place at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham from March 5-10, it will mark a magnificent 30th consecutive year of title sponsorship.

Yonex is now poised to surpass the Stella Artois tennis tournament (1979-2008) as one of the longest-running tournament sponsorships in sporting history. With the Yonex Japan Open set to celebrate 32 years of title sponsorship this year, it makes Yonex the genuine brand leader in both Asia and Europe.

The Yonex All England Championships are the oldest and most prestigious in Open badminton history and, thanks to the unstinting support of the Yonex Company, it remains the tournament all the top players want to win. That is borne out by the 2013 entry, which has attracted just about all the big names in the sport.

Yonex President Ben Yoneyama, whose father Minoru founded the company in the late1940s, said: “My family have always had a passion for the All England Open Championships, ever since my father first came to the Championships at Wembley Arena as a young man in the 1960s. “Our company’s mission statement declares that we contribute to the development of the world’s social culture through sport. By our continued support of this great old tournament we have done just that – and will continue to do so.

“Just as we are the No.1 badminton brand, so the Yonex All England Championships is, to me, the No.1 international tournament. We have seen it grow and grow, to be one of the five Premier events on the Badminton World Federation’s Super Series and I am delighted that it will retain that special status through the 2014-2017 cycle.

“It is with great pride that our company is now clocking up 30 years of the Yonex All England to go with the 32 years of the Yonex Japan Open. I can’t think of another company who can boast such commitment to sport.”
Paul Jepson, Managing Director of Yonex UK, added: “Our company is the title sponsor of many tournaments, including the Japan, India, Denmark, and French

Open Superseries events. We also sponsor this week’s Yonex German Open in Mülheim. “But to me the Yonex All England Championships will always be the jewel in the crown because of its history and tradition. It is the tournament that showed others the way – and still does.

“Our reputation at Yonex is well known all over the world and we are delighted to have been title sponsors at the 2011 Yonex BWF World Championships at Wembley Arena and sole equipment suppliers at the London 2012 Olympic Games badminton tournament at Wembley.

 “But Yonex involvement with the All England Championships is paramount to our international reputation. It attracts the world’s best players, it is staged in a superb venue and the presentation of the tournament is outstanding. Thirty consecutive years of title sponsorship of an annual UK tournament is going to take some beating and we are proud to have played our part.”

Adrian Christy, Chief Executive of BADMINTON England, paid his own tribute, saying: “We are indebted to Yonex for their unbelievable commitment to our great Championships.

“The company is clearly as proud to be associated with the All England and its traditions as we at BADMINTON England are.

“The continued Yonex support has enabled us to make the Championships bigger and better year on year and enabled us to maintain our position as one of the five Premier events on the Superseries circuit right through the next cycle to 2017. We couldn’t have achieved this without them.”

Click HERE to visit the official website of Yonex
Click HERE to go to the official All England website

Article by William Kings, Photo by BadmintonPhoto.