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| Women’s Event Receives Boost From Hunter Valley Family Business |
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Long established family Toyota dealership, the Burton Family Maitland Toyota, have announced a major investment in Surfest 2006, the dealership becoming the Official Vehicle Supplier for the festival and injecting a cash sponsorship of $30,000 into the festival helping organisers to secure the women’s event rating as a 2 Star WQS event.
The sponsorship represents the largest single cash investment by a Hunter based company in the 2006 festival.
‘This is an unprecedented step by a local family company,’ said Surfest Marketing/Promotions Manager David Cromarty.
‘We are very grateful to the Burton Family for such a strong vote of support in the value of Surfest for the Region with an investment of this magnitude.’
As a family business, the Burton Family Maitland Toyota recognized the link between Australia’s largest professional surfing festival and their dealership….and a keen interest in surfing also helped!
‘As a family business we saw Surfest as a great ‘family event’ for the Hunter Region,’ Maitland Toyota’s Kim Burton said.
‘Burton Family Maitland Toyota has a long history in the Hunter and so does Surfest. And as a keen surfer for more than 30 years, when the events sponsorship woes were raised in the media, I saw the opportunity to make a valuable contribution to the continued success of Australia’s largest festival of surfing.’
‘We’re proud to support this event at a local level and contribute to the growth of women’s surfing,’ Kim Burton said.
‘However we have also given our commitment to festival organizers to work with them in a concerted approach to Toyota Australia to also make a contribution to Surfest, if not for 2006 then for the following year.’
In addition to the significant cash investment, ensuring the increased status of the women’s event, Burton Family Maitland Toyota will assume the role as Official Vehicle Supplier for Surfest, with vehicles to include the all new Toyota Hilux SR5.
A minimum of six (6) vehicles from the new Toyota range will be made available in the lead up to and during Surfest 2006 for the exclusive use of officials and top seeded competitors.
Burton Family Maitland Toyota first opened in December 1963 trading as Sharton Motors with a total staff of four. Norm and Maureen Burton were the principals in the business, and are still in that role today, some 40 years later.
The dealership operated out of two sites for some 20 years until 2002, when Norm and Maureen made a major investment and built a multi-million dollar facility to combine all divisions of one site. Maitland Toyota now occupies
104 –124 Newcastle Road, East Maitland, and operate with 42 local staff.
Following on from the recent announcement of NSW Government support for the festival, today’s announcement of the Burton Family’s support was applauded by Sandra Nori, Minister for Tourism and Sport and Recreation.
"It is good to see that Surfest is starting to attract the sponsorship that it deserves.”
"The NSW Government has supported Surfest because it believes that it is an outstanding regional event and I am sure that the Burton Family Maitland Toyota will agree what a great showcase it is, not only for the local community but also visitors to the region as well," Minister Nori said.
FURTHER INFORMATION:
Kim Burton, Burton Family Maitland Toyota Ph. 49338383 or 0408973808 David Cromarty, Marketing/Promotions Manager, Surfest Ph. 0411 757465
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