TESCO ANNOUNCED AS MAJOR SPONSOR OF WORLDPRIDE 2012

Pride London, which has the honour of hosting WorldPride2012 in London next year, has announced Tesco as a Gold Sponsor of WorldPride 2012, pledging a significant sum towards the event and committing to running an area for families at the event. The company joins Headline Sponsor Smirnoff as top tier supporters of the event.

Tesco, the UK’s largest retailer with over 2,700 stores in the UK and operations in 14 countries, employing over 492,000 people, signed the deal this week as Pride London, the largest Gay Pride event in the UK announced the first details of its plans for next year’s landmark event.  The funding will make a contribution towards the £800,000 cost of running the event, helping to ensure that it remains entirely free for those attending, unlike other Pride events around the UK which have opted to introduce an element of charging for attendance.

As part of the deal, Tesco will once again operate a family area which will provide families attending the event with a safe, relaxed and chilled out space featuring family-friendly entertainment and activities to keep our younger guests amused. The area was a huge success when it was first introduced at last year’s event and is expected to be bigger and better in 2012.   Explaining the reason behind their decision to partner with Pride London, Andrew Higginson, CEO of Retailing Services at Tesco said: “We’re very pleased to be sponsoring WorldPride 2012, following our extremely successful presence at Pride London 2011. Tesco is the UK's largest private employer, and a very diverse international organisation where everybody is welcome. Our Out at Tesco team will be working closely with Pride London to ensure next year’s event is even more a fun and   Speaking about the agreement, Paul Birrell, Chair of Pride London commented: “WorldPride 2012 will be bigger, better and longer than any other Pride event has ever been but running the largest un-ticketed event in Europe does not happen for free. Whilst Pride is organised entirely by volunteers it costs in excess of £800,000 to run each year. We are proud that Pride London remains a free event for everyone to enjoy but this is only possible because of companies like Tesco and their generous support.”

The investment by two of the UK's best known international brands is an additional vote of confidence that the event will be truly world class. The announcement sees Tesco join Smirnoff (a brand of the Diageo Company) who have already been signed up as the events headline sponsor. Further sponsorship opportunities are however still available, with more major agreements to be  announced over the coming months.

WorldPride parade will take place on 7th July 2012.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

• The Pride London Press Office can be contacted via This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it – the mailbox is monitored by a number of Press Officers and we will respond to requests
• The Tesco Press Office can be contacted on 01992 644 645
• A full library of images for use in any stories associated with Pride London is available at http://www.pridelondon.org/news/photogallery (follow the link to our Flickr
• A multimedia library containing images associated with Tesco is available at http:// www.tescoplc.com/news/multimedia-library/
• Details of the plans for next year’s event can be found at: http://www.pridelondon.org/news/182-pmbiggestever
• Full details of the events, stages and acts taking part in next year’s event will be released during the 274 days between now and the event taking place.