BankLink confirms Rowing New Zealand sponsorship through until 2012

Rowing New Zealand and Principal Partner BankLink have announced an extension to their current agreement guaranteeing sponsorship until the end of the Olympic Games in London 2012.

The partnership which began in 2006 includes sponsorship of Rowing New Zealand and the New Zealand National Rowing Championships.

Last year support was also provided for the National Masters Rowing Championship and the annual fundraising dinners held to help send the international rowing teams abroad. These dinners raised in excess of $100,000. Both of these initiatives are set to continue under the new agreement.

"As well as being the Principal Partner and providing us with important and welcome revenue, BankLink is a fantastic sponsor at an operational level, the staff and stakeholders turning out in force at home or abroad whenever the athletes race," explained Rowing New Zealand CEO Simon Peterson.

"In the tough economic times, this announcement is simply fantastic. Sponsorship is just getting harder to find and we are in the exceptionally good position that we have a sponsor who has not only stuck with us and increased its support as the relationship has developed, but also a partner who has made real efforts to make the sponsorship work for them as well. It's a great partnership."

BankLink has seen great benefits from its sponsorship of RNZ - which this season is enjoying unprecedented success on the water with international medals at Elite, Under-23 and Junior level

“We are very proud of our association with Rowing New Zealand,” explained Richard Reece, Chief Operations Officer for BankLink. “As a Kiwi company competing successfully on the world stage, we feel that BankLink and Rowing New Zealand have a lot in common and we are delighted that our consistent growth has enabled us to extend our support to these fine athletes. The benefits of our sponsorship has gone far beyond simple promotion of our brand – it is has been a source on ongoing motivation and enjoyment for our customers, our partners and of course our staff who have really got behind “our” team.”

For over 20 years BankLink has been used by around 4000 accounting practices to streamline the accounting of more than 300,000 small business accounts in Australia and New Zealand.

The BankLink service provides accounting practices with a reliable and timely stream of client transactional data electronically. Along with the data, they also provide software to enable practices to process the data and produce financial reports for their clients.