Emami Group, the Kolkata headquartered diversified business conglomerate formally signed an agreement yesterday as the new investor of the East Bengal Club, the century old heritage football club of India based in Kolkata to form a joint venture Company, named “EMAMI EAST BENGAL FC PVT. LTD”.
Emami Group is an Rs 25,000 cr business conglomerate which enjoys strong leadership presence in diverse sectors like FMCG, Edible Oil, Newsprint & Packaging Board, Real Estate, Writing Instruments, Healthcare, Retail and Contemporary Art.
Emami Group, through this partnership, will associate itself as an investor to strengthen the brand equity of East Bengal Club and also develop the Club as one of the premium footballing brands in the country.
Commenting on this partnership, Aditya V. Agarwal, Director, Emami Group said, “Emami has a rich legacy of being associated with the sporting fraternity of the country. We believe that as Corporates, we need to come forward to provide impetus to the budding sportsmen right from the grass root levels. Our brands, over the years, have been associated with many great names of Indian sports as our brand ambassadors across different disciplines – starting from the legendary the Late Milkha Singh to iconic players like Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Virendra Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Gautam Gambhir to Saina Nehwal, Sania Mirza, Mary Kom,etc. We have had a very successful association with East Bengal Club during mid-90’s as a sponsor. Through our new Joint Venture, Emami East Bengal, we are excited to re-partner once again and contribute towards the development of one of the best football properties of the country.”
Manish Goenka, Director, Emami Group added, “Football is one of the oldest and popular sports in India. Bengal particularly, has always been an ardent promoter of the sport. Football is not just a sport in this State, but a culture that runs in the city’s veins and the air it breathes.
Bengal has many aspiring footballers from all walks of life and through this new partnership Emami East Bengal, we not only want to promote the Club, but also encourage young players to take up the game as a career, so that Bengal can produce world class football players. We look forward to the support of football lovers to make Emami East Bengal successful.”
Kalyan Majumder, Secretary, East Bengal Club said on this occasion, “We are happy and excited with this partnership with the Emami Group and together, as Emami East Bengal, we are hopeful of building one of India’s best Football team. The association with Emami is promising and we believe that this partnership is right for both the partners marking a new beginning full of exciting possibilities. The sporting activities of the club will gather pace now with efforts to join all tournaments including ISL as well as to enhance the player base, training capacity and infrastructure required to achieve more sporting successes.”
