Panini UK: “We had large numbers of requests from UK Tour de France fans, so we listened”

Panini UK will be working with Tour de France organisers this year with campaigns running across its social media platforms to engage the cycling community in its 2020 Tour de France stickers and cards collection. Its UK launch arrives in direct response to a ‘large number of requests’ from UK fans.

The new launch – scheduled for this August 6th – will mark the first time that Panini UK and Eire has overseen its own Tour de France collection. The new stickers and cards collection arrives on UK shores following a surge in the number of requests from UK Tour fans when the collection launched to the international market for last year’s event.

The 2020 Tour de France – while moved back to a start date of August 29th this year – is one of the few sporting events not to be cancelled this year owing to the coronavirus pandemic.

Chris Clover, head of marketing, sport, at Panini UK, told Licensing.biz: “Panini UK and Eire are really excited to be launching our first Tour de France collection this year. We have received a large number of requests from UK Tour fans, asking us to bring the collection to our shores, and we have listened.

“As a global leader in sports collectables, Panini understands the huge passion and following that the Tour has this side of the channel, and we can’t wait to let collectors get their hands on the new album.”

Panini launched its first international partnership with the Tour de France last year. The 2020 event will be the first time Panini UK brings the collectables collection to the UK.

“Last year was the first that Panini launched an official Grand Tour collection and we are incredibly proud to have been entrusted with creating a collection for such a historical event, which means so much to cycling fans all over the World,” said Clover.

“We will be ensuring the collection has a promotional platform designed to get albums to all the fans that we know are keen to start collecting and we will be working closely with the Tour organisers across our social media to engage the cycling community.”