New Liverpool Deal Follows Familiar Path
Liverpool have agreed a multi-year deal with US-based tech firm Trimble
Liverpool’s latest addition to their ever-growing portfolio of club partners very much follows the club’s commercial thread.
On Friday, the Reds announced that they had entered into a multi-year agreement with global technology firm Trimble, the aim being to use the company’s technology and expertise to maximise elements of the club’s infrastructure and operations, something that will start with the upgrading of the LFC Academy at Kirkby.
The Reds are to invest in the creation of a full-size indoor pitch, a brand new outdoor pitch and stands, as well as the revamping of existing medical and sport science functions, the aim being to improve facilities across the board for the Academy age groups to aid development as they move through the ranks at the club, and for the club to be able to maximise their potential.
Trimble, by their own explanation, is a company that seeks to connect the physical and digital worlds. Its core business spans construction, logistics, mapping, and infrastructure, with the aim being to help teams design, build, and operate with greater speed, precision, and foresight, something that can be valuable when committing hundreds of thousands, if not millions of pounds to a project. The company uses GPS-enabled surveying and 3D modelling to real-time workflow automation and ‘enables industries to anticipate challenges and deliver outcomes at scale’.
Ben Latty, chief commercial officer at Liverpool, said: “Trimble’s technology and expertise will play an important role in how we continue to evolve our facilities to meet the needs of the modern game – starting with the redevelopment of our Academy.
“Innovation has always been central to the club’s approach, and this partnership brings a fresh perspective to how we design and deliver spaces that support our players, staff and fans. We’re delighted to welcome Trimble to the LFC partnership family.”
That’s the corporate spiel anyway, and it all sounds super professional and incredibly helpful to what Liverpool want to achieve. But while it might not be a deal that will be the talk of the pub this Friday evening, usurping the chatter around what happens to Arne Slot if the Reds lose the next couple of games, deals like these are of significant importance to the club and their long-term ambitions, and they also point to how the football club is run.
The club’s commercial revenue for 2023/24 stood at £308m. While the accounts for 2024/25 have not yet been published, something which will likely occur towards the end of February, another increase on that figure is almost certain thanks to deals struck with blue-chip companies such as Google Pixel, UPS and Lucozade during that period.
We are now in the 2025/26 financial year, one which will include what is set to be a record-breaking year one of the Adidas deal if early figures are anything to go by, and the Trimble deal will be one of a number that keep that commercial figure climbing higher, something that is vital to enable the club to keep investing in on-pitch talent in a market where transfer fees continue to rise along with wages, and one where clubs have had to start weaning themselves off broadcast income being the strongest revenue pillar due to a questionable outlook for the medium to long term health of domestic broadcast rights in the face of challenged subscriber bases for the main broadcasters such as Sky Sports and TNT.
Trimble will have the usual sponsorship activation. They will, as the accompanying press release to the announcement of the deal stated, ‘feature across Anfield and LFC’s digital platforms – which boast more than 215 million followers on social channels, 12 million subscribers on YouTube, and a cumulative TV audience of 583 million across all competitions during the 24/25 season – strengthening visibility among the club’s global fanbase and partners’.
But they are another partner that not only brings in funds for Liverpool from a commercial standpoint, but also adds operational expertise to help the club maximise their gains in other areas, just as deals with the likes of UPS and Peloton have done.
UPS, for example, helps power Liverpool’s global logistics by streamlining merchandise delivery and e-commerce fulfilment. Through its European distribution hub in Roermond, Netherlands, which was opened last year to remove pressure on the local distribution hub on Merseyside, UPS enables the club to get product to the fans in a shorter timeframe, and on a global scale. The US firm also helps to optimise Liverpool’s supply chain, ‘integrating packaging, inventory, and delivery workflows to meet global demand’. It is a deal which helps move the needle for the club beyond just raising commercial revenues on an annual basis, it aids the actual infrastructure of the club, and that is impactful over a longer period of time.
It is now a strategy that forms part of the commercial DNA of Liverpool, something that Latty explained to me when I spoke to him for the Liverpool Echo after the UPS deal in 2023.
“Clearly, monetary value is important for us and the way that we run the football club, and we’d never apologise for talking about the sustainable business model that we have got, and that we are proud of, quite frankly,” he said.
“What you have seen with the partnerships we have announced is a bit of an evolution of our business model. Most of the partners that we have now bring more than just monetary value for us. There are a few examples of that. There are those who support us with our Red Way strategy and our sustainability strategy and, ultimately, our commitment to building a better future for the people, planet and communities in which we serve. An example of that would be someone like SC Johnson and their commitment to reducing waste at Anfield. Our recycling rate now is over 90%, when we started that partnership it was about 25%.
“Another example is someone like Vistaprint, through their support of local businesses and the local community. There are others, like Expedia providing free transport to away women’s games, and other partners who are supporting our drive for women’s football, whether that be Google Pixel, Standard Chartered or AXA.
“Every partner we bring in now we like to integrate fully into the club and provide more than just a marketing partnership and provide to different areas of the club.”
Expect more deals of the Trimble nature as the club continues to add global partners in a bid to create larger commercial revenues to top out their rivals, but also to build a strong, sustainable business to move into the next decade and more.
