Triumphant Newport County stars have shared their historic return to the Football League with one of their biggest and most loyal supporters – leading UK recruitment and training group Acorn.
Several of the County squad, who played a key part in the club’s promotion-winning success with victory in the Blue Square Conference Premier League play-off final at Wembley, called in to the Acorn branch in Newport city centre to share their celebrations with staff.
Acorn, which has its UK headquarters at the Celtic Springs Business Park in Newport, has been a proud sponsor of the Exiles since the 1998/99 season when the Acorn name first appeared on their home and away playing shirts.
Acorn Group founder and managing director Matt Southall is a lifelong Newport County fan and served on the board as a director of the club for several years. The support of both Matt and the company has proved infectious among the Acorn staff – last season Acorn financed a fleet of coaches and tickets to transport Acorn staff, families and friends to support County in their first ever visit to Wembley to play in the FA Carlsberg Trophy Final.
Acorn Group Marketing Director Dan Langford said: “We have been delighted with the long-standing and successful association with Newport County and while Acorn has offices throughout the UK and internationally, the company was founded in Newport and has become synonymous with the city.
“As a business we’re hugely proud of our roots, and our partnership with Newport County has helped to reinforce our engagement with the South East Wales community, which we have worked together with for some 20 years or so.
“We have adopted a similar approach to supporting local sports clubs and community-centred activities in many of the other regions around the UK where we are based.
“We were all thrilled with the team’s win at Wembley and return to the Football League and to have some of the County players visit our Newport branch in person is the icing on the cake. As a company we couldn’t be happier for their success.”
Newport County Director of Football, Tim Harris, said: “The club’s relationship with Acorn has been one of the most important and successful partnerships in the club’s history. Acorn is a true supporter of Newport County. Our visit to Acorn was our way of saying thank you for their loyalty.”
Established in 1992 the Acorn Group has 35 branches across Wales, the West Country, the North West of England, London and the South East, placing up to 5,000 people into around 850 different client companies every week and securing 1,400 permanent placements each year.