A foundation of strong relationships – By Luke Chadwick

Over the years we have developed some wonderful partnerships at the Football Fun Factory and we are grateful to all those we have worked with both past and present for being part of our journey.

From the very start of our journey we have always said the business is all about the relationships we build and that is still so true to this day. In everything we do we want to offer as much value as we possibly can to those we are working with. And this happens on so many levels within our organisation.

Our Head Coaches are building partnerships with the venues that they use and always show these facilities and those working within them the utmost respect as without them we don’t have a business to run, they are also building relationships with other local businesses, grassroots teams, not to mention the kids and parents attending the programmes. The reason for this is every one of our superstar Head Coaches wants to have the most possible positive impact in their local community and to do this you have to work hard to build relationships, as the saying goes ‘Together everybody achieves more!’

At head office the partnerships we have built have been a little different and more on a national scale as we continue to strengthen our brand and extend the footprint as the more people that have heard of us will lead to more children enjoying our programmes! When you’re in the business all the time you can get a bit carried away and I have been guilty at times of simply assuming everyone knows who the Football Fun Factory are when in reality so, so many people are unaware of us which actually gives me so much excitement of what can be achieved when everyone is aware of the FFF!

A partnership that has massively helped with growing our awareness has been with Center Parcs who we have been working with for nearly two years now. To work with such an iconic holidaying organization has been something we are extremely proud of and has helped to engage our brand with thousands of people on a daily basis. How this partnership works sees the Center Parcs staff deliver our experiences after receiving intense training and support from our very own superstar head of delivery and FFF co-founder Jonny Martin, and he loves it because the Center Parcs staff have those key ingredients that our Head Coaches have which is loads of personality and enthusiasm and a real passion to see the children have the best possible experience.

Another massively important partnership we have developed is with our fantastic kit provider 3Q Sports who we have been working with for over a year now, one of our biggest headaches at HQ was kit, both supply and getting orders out to our superstar Head Coaches but working with 3Q has been a breath of fresh air as they really are experts in their field. These days all of our Nike kit is taken care of directly through 3Q and having been to the factory and experienced the hard work that goes on to both to prepare and get orders out we couldn’t be in better hands!

I’m sure in time we will be announcing new exciting partnerships and relationships which is of course very exciting but will only come into fruition if we have a shared ethos and culture, because that’s when the strongest relationships are built.