Henkel has been sponsoring Beach Volleyball Grand Slam tournaments in Paris, France and Klagenfurt, Austria, for many years. The tremendous success of Henkel’s involvement in these two events was the main reason underlying the company’s decision to extend its sponsoring to the M-Tel Beach Masters in Bulgaria in 2008.

Last year, more than 250,000 fans attended the Paris and Klagenfurt events. The ties established to professional beach volleyball provides the manufacturer of brand name consumer products headquartered in Düsseldorf with the opportunity to leverage a national sporting event with broad-based appeal, in line with its sponsoring strategy. This is designed to increase awareness of Henkel as an umbrella brand, and simultaneously to further expand Henkel’s presence on the Bulgarian market. 

The first M-Tel Beach Masters tournament took place from May 23-25, 2008 in Plovdiv. The other four competitions will be held in Slantschev Brjag, Varna, Sozopol and Sofia. A total of 12 men and 12 women, the best players in Bulgaria, will participate in the finals on September 6-7, 2008, competing for 60,000 euros in tournament prize money.

Tournament schedule:

June 27-29, 2008: Slantschev Brjag
July 24-27, 2008:  Varna
August 8-10, 2008: Sozopol
September 5-7, 2008: Sofia

Beach volleyball attained the status of an Olympic sport in 1996. Since the 1980s, the game has emerged as a highly popular sporting event, which appeals to a large audience today. Moreover, beach volleyball is considered to be a fair and “clean” sport, which has not been plagued by scandals or doping cases. In addition to the playing surface, the main difference to indoor volleyball is the number of players on the team. In beach volleyball, each team consists of two players, not six as is the case with its indoor counterpart.

Henkel has been sponsoring national and international sports events for many years. Besides the Beach Volleyball Grand Slam tournaments in Paris and Klagenfurt, Henkel has also been involved with the Ice Hockey World Championship in Canada and the World Handball Championship in Germany last year.  

For more than 130 years, Henkel has been a leader with brands and technologies that make people’s lives easier, better and more beautiful. Henkel operates in three business areas – Home Care, Personal Care, and Adhesives Technologies – and ranks among the Fortune Global 500 companies. In fiscal 2007, Henkel generated sales of 13,074 million euros and an operating profit of 1,344 million euros. Our 55,000 employees worldwide are dedicated to fulfilling our corporate claim, “A Brand like a Friend”, and ensuring that people in more than 125 countries can trust in brands and technologies from Henkel.