The Cheshire based brand, supplier of England’s football kit, is all set to be swallowed up by Nike in a reported £285m deal. This will allow Nike to gain a huge foothold in the UK soccer market, wrapping up kit deals with the majority of the Premiership’s top teams (such as Man United, Arsenal, Everton and West Ham) as well as the biggest clubs north of the border.

It is the England kit Umbro is probably best known for though and, ultimately, this has been a weakness as well as an opportunity as the company’s fortunes have fluctuated with those of McClaren’s stuttering band of players. Partly as a result of this Umbro last month revised down its 2007 profits forecast from £30m to just over £22m, following a dip in sales of replica kits.

Umbro’s main agencies of note are believed to be Love Creative (the lead firm on all global advertising), Swamp (Yorkshire based, digital), Manchester’s Silver Films (production) and Xposure (which runs PR briefs).

Of these Love will be the firm with the most to lose should there be changes to the marketing department, as the company currently ranks as one of its biggest clients. However, the team also has an excellent relationship with Nike, having completed several projects for the Europe/Middle East/Africa region (run out of the Netherlands) over the past few years.

The reception they have received for the Umbro campaigns to date has also been positive, leading some industry insiders to suggest that the agency could see its brief extended (with further Nike work) rather than whipped away from beneath them.

Nobody at Love was available to comment at the time of writing. It is believed that the account team are waiting to hear further instructions with regard to upcoming campaigns from the client.

Umbro does not deal exclusively with England on an international basis and also provides football kit to Ireland, Norway, Sweden and Northern Ireland.

http://www.umbro.co.uk/

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