SWIRE Shipping announced that it has signed a two-year sponsorship deal which will see the company become the branding and naming rights sponsor to the Fijian Drua, Super Rugby Pacific’s newest professional club.
The Swire Shipping Fijian Drua will make its Super Rugby Pacific debut in February 2022.
Alex Pattison, Swire Shipping’s regional manager for the Pacific Islands said, “Over the years, we have seen immense talent from both young men and women at grassroots rugby in Fiji.
“Through our sponsorship, we hope to inspire them and to provide them a springboard to enter the professional competition for rugby in the region,”
Swire Shipping has a close association with Fiji rugby, having been a sponsor since 2017. The company is already a naming rights sponsor of the Swire Fijian Warriors, the representative Fijian team participating in the Pacific Nations Cup.
Fijian Drua interim CEO Brian Thorburn said, “As with this latest sponsorship, our involvement in the Warriors partnership was – and still is – to give young players the opportunity to develop their rugby and life skills”.
“As our foundation naming rights and branding sponsor, Swire Shipping has effectively secured its place in Fijian professional rugby history.
“The synergy between our organisations is quite poetic, and we share similar values of quality and excellence,” he said.
The Swire Shipping Fijian Drua will prominently feature the major sponsor on the team’s playing and training kits, along with other off-field apparel.
Announced recently, the Super Rugby Pacific competition has included Moana Pasifika as part of the new 12-team approach. Moana Pasifika comprises players who identify with Pacific Island nations.
Ten Super clubs from New Zealand and Australia – in which Swire Shipping also has a strong market presence – will join this competition as well.
Fiji is an important hub for Swire Shipping, facilitating its liner, bulk and inland logistics businesses.
Beyond rugby, Swire Shipping is also deeply involved in several other major projects in the Pacific. It is working with the Micronesian Centre for Sustainable Transport at the University of the South Pacific to support Project Cerulean which is the development of a low-carbon, low-tech, low-cost sail-assisted cargo ship to serve outlying islands that are depopulating in the Pacific Islands.
Under the Moana Taka Partnership and through Swire Shipping, private sector companies can move recyclable waste streams, where they are accumulating, out of the Pacific Island countries and territories, to countries with competent, certified and sustainable recycling plants.
In 2020, CNCo shipped out 217.83 tonnes of low value recyclable waste which otherwise would have ended up in local landfills.
