Why do British Equestrian Choose to have an Australian Company as Official Saddle Partner?

On the 31st March this year I ran a post on Facebook, forwarding a British Equestrian paid Partnership post advertising Bates Saddles as their Official Saddle Partner. The post generated a strong response (for me) from a wide range of people with a wide range of opinions on the saddles and their build quality.

What fascinated me was the fact that here was BRITISH Equestrian, largely funded by UK Sport (i.e. the British Taxpayer and Lottery player), apparently unashamedly promoting an overseas saddle manufacturer. How could this be right I wondered; how do you get to be the Official Saddle Partner of BEF? And do British Saddle Manufacturers get the chance to apply?

There was only way to find out I decided - ask! This is how I got on.

Product placement is always with us
©Harveywetdog

Initial sortie

I wrote my first e-mail to BEF on 14th April 2023 around three main themes

• Does the selection of a partner, whose manufacturing is undertaken in the Far East, align with the declared ambition of ensuring a sustainable future for UK Sport?
• Is there a defined selection process for becoming an Official Partner to British Equestrian?
• Are companies with a British manufacturing based sought out and encouraged to apply to become Partners?

I also explained that I would be writing to my MP and the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport to make them aware of the situation. I thought it best to remind the latter that British Equestrian receive both Exchequer and Lottery funding via UK Sport. With my MP it was more a case of pushing the "are we operating in the best interest of British manufacturing" angle.

And then we waited

As I hadn't heard back from BEF by mid May I then wrote to my MP and to Lucy Frazer, who was the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport at that time, to raise the lack of a response from BEF with them. My MP's office wrote to BEF in May and followed up in June before I finally received a response from BEF in mid July.

I had explained in my initial correspondence with BEF that my intention was to share their response to my questions with my subscribers, so here we go.

How BEF are funded       

The letter explained that while BEF are largely funded by UK sport and Sport England, they also require additional sponsorship and funding from third parties to help deliver "our support function to our member bodies" adding that the member bodies provide income in the form of membership fees. I don't think I'd realised that as a member of BE I was actually making a small contribution to BEF but I guess it's obvious all things considered.

BEF noted that as part of their agreement with UK Sport they are required to secure a certain level of commercial income or "value in kind" (VIK) support adding that this is the same for all governing bodies in receipt of exchequer and lottery funding. This makes having an element of third party funding vital for BEF, although there was a feeling that the offering available for commercial investors is relatively limited currently. BEF are looking at ways to expand this to some of their wider initiatives - whatever that means?

NAF - A trusted British partner
©Harveywedog

How Official Partners are Selected

While I would like to provide you details of a scrupulously fair selection process against a clearly thought out and specified Partner Selection Programme, I'm afraid I can't. BEF explained that they are not (currently) resourced to "actively source commercial partners on a large scale" which has resulted in the BEF Partner portfolio coming into being as the result of "direct approaches from companies which support us with a financial contribution and/or supply of products/services (VIK)". They added that the process is open for anyone who wants to align themselves with British Equestrian and the teams.

Companies generally approach BEF as part of the companies own brand strategy - messaging, product launch, reaching key audiences, plus brand association with the teams. BEF claim that approaches are fully reviewed and subject to due diligence. The basis of this review was not specified but I'd be pretty certain it doesn't include any form of independent verification to establish if the claims made for the companies' products are valid. 

I've talked before about sponsorship not being an act of philanthropy - people are in it to make money.

Sponsorship - who's benefit 

Being an an Official Partner is exactly the same. It doesn't mean that the Partner is any better or any more to be trusted in their particularly field - it just means that you, as a customer, are paying a premium for the recognition being a Partner buys.

BEF would prefer more British Partners  

At the time the letter was written in July 2023 BEF claimed that eight out of ten of their partners/suppliers were British brands. Looking at the list of partners/suppliers on the BEF website today (December 2023) that looks to have slipped to seven out of ten. Of course partners/suppliers come and go, with BEF stated they'd "welcome support from British companies, and it would be a preference".        

"we'd welcome support from British companies, and it would be a preference"

BEF accepted it wasn't always possible to go British but that they would check that values aligned perfectly before committing to work with any partner. BEF quoted corporate social responsibility, welfare of all participants and sustained viability as examples of values that would need to align. Nowadays Companies are judged on their management of Environmental, Societal and Governance issues so we shouldn't be surprised that the selection of Official Partners is the same.

Sponsorship is all around
© Harveywetdog

 

Taking Bates in isolation

While BEF accepted that Bates' roots lie in Australia they also recognised them as a global brand, part of the Saddlery Brands International banner who distribute Arena Saddles, Bates Saddles and Wintec Saddles in Australia, North America, United Kingdom, Scandinavia and Germany (Bates Saddles only).

In other countries the saddles are available through partner distributors.

BEF told me that Saddlery Brands International was the parent company and was a British company, but when I checked on this I found that while Saddlery Brands International (UK) is British based, the parent company is in fact Hammersmith Nominees Pty Ltd, based in Perth, Western Australia, trading as Saddlery Brands International, Saddlery Brands International USA LLC and Saddlery Brands International UK Limited.

In the letter BEF provided a link to a statement in the Bates Saddlery website relating to Corporate Social Responsibility, which says all the right things, and also quoted Bates' ethos on equine welfare and comfort as resonating strongly with them as well as a commitment to provide educational content which BEF felt would help address social acceptance and improve standards.

All the right words.....
Bates website page

Sustainability

BEF confirmed their endorsement of the UK Sport Environmental Sustainability Strategy (which had been published in March 2023) and confirmed that they were taking their own actions to comply with the requirements of the strategy. (In case you've forgotten the Strategy includes a goal for high-performance sport to have a net positive impact on the environment by 2040.) My question had been how the selection of Bates had been consistent with this goal. BEF chose not to answer this question directly preferring instead to state that sport in general would always be dependent on global brands as it is not always possible to source things locally. While that argument carries some weight, it doesn't in the case of saddlery where we have a good selection of British manufacturers still available.

Just stop Sport?
UK Sport Strategy

The way forward

Since I received the response from BEF, Bates have now been announced as the Official FEI Saddle Partner, so they obviously believe these partnerships are working for them. Of course saddle choice is a very important and yet personal thing and I don't see a long queue of top British riders lining up to endorse them.

Perhaps British saddle manufacturers are more canny and realise you get a better bang for your VIK buck by equipping specific top riders with the selected saddle of their choice, rather than going for the more ethereal ESG focused "educational" approach at the Governing Body level.

Nevertheless, as there is no formal selection process, the invitation remains open for British Saddle manufacturers to put together a better package than Bates and take over the mantle of British Equestrian's Official Saddle Partner. After all, all things come to end eventually and it may prove BEF were Bates' sprat to catch the FEI mackerel.

What have the Australians ever done for us?
(British eventing life image)

And while it does irritate me that we have chosen a Saddle Partner who is not British, I realise it could have been much worse - they could have been French!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author - David Robinson CEng FIET  

David spent approaching 50 years in Her Majesty's Electricity Supply Industry before retiring

He was part of the highly successful design team on the Sizewell B Nuclear Power Station Project before spending 25 years producing safety cases to keep our aging AGR fleet generating for the good of the nation

He is responsible for the Harveywetdog YouTube Channel which he maintains as an outlet for his creative talents

David recently recovered from blood cancer but refused to be a victim

All views are his own but might be influenced by the drugs he's had to take