Flames replicas hit market today

FAM is hoping to make a K20 million (about $52 600) profit from the sale of 5 000 Flames replica jerseys that are expected to hit the market today in the countdown to Saturday’s 2015 Africa Cup of Nations Group B encounter against Algeria.

Speaking during the launch of the Flames’ new Umbro uniforms and replicas at College of Medicine Sports Complex on Tuesday evening, Football Association of Malawi (FAM) president Walter Nyamilandu said each replica will be selling at K15 000 (about $40).

He said for a start, they will be sold at Into Sports shops at Chichiri Shopping Mall in Blantyre and Lilongwe.

FAM invested K51.5 million towards the initial consignment and the sale of 5 000 pieces translate to K75 million ($200 000). He said the money invested in the venture was part of the K300 million each national association got as a bonus from Fifa from 2014 World Cup proceeds.

“After factoring in all costs, we are targeting K20 million which is a profit margin of 20 percent,” said Nyamilandu.

Put to him on whether K15 000 is on a higher side considering that the association was forced to reduce the Puma replica price tag by 45 percent from K9 000 to K5 000 due to poor sales, the FAM president said: “That was three years ago and in between there was inflation. It also has to be borne in mind that over the past few years, things have gone up and the [Umbro] jersey is of high quality.”

Nyamilandu also said FAM has not targeted any specific class of people.

“We are targeting Malawians that are proud of their country and fans that are passionate about football and their national team in particular,” he said.

He also said production of low-quality product was not an option because such inferior products are prone to counterfeiting.

Nyamilandu said the advantages of the Umbro deal compared to Puma are that the former has mixed quantity, “like for Puma we were supposed to order 10 000 replicas over a period of time while Umbro it is 5 000 and there are no limitations in terms of the period.

“In terms of quantity and variety, the Umbro’s range is wider because they supply many items such as casual and travel wear, travel bags, towels, tracksuits, training equipment and kit. The technical sponsorship will also extend to the women and junior national teams. They will also support us with branding in the outlets where we are going to sell the replicas.”

The FAM president also said unlike during the Puma deal when they did not have a clear selling strategy, this time around, they have appointed exclusive distributors based on reputation and position.

“Our business partnership with Puma was a learning experience and we realised that our core business is not to be directly involved in such deals, but rather running and developing the game,” he said.

He appealed to Malawians to support the national team by buying the jerseys, saying: “There could have been no better time than when we are a few days from hosting Algeria. We want the whole stadium to be in red and I appeal to all of you to come and buy the jerseys.

“We are hoping the new kit will inspire the Flames so that they burn Algeria to ashes on Saturday.”

He also revealed that out of the 5 000 jerseys, the Flames’ official sponsors Carlsberg Malawi will buy 1 500 which it will use for its promotions.

Carlsberg’s senior brands manager (alcoholics) Twikale Chirwa said according to the sponsorship agreement, Carlsberg is entitled to brand Flames’ replicas.

“But we want to demonstrate that we are Flames’ supporter number one and, therefore apart from the K250 million sponsorship, we will buy 1 500 replicas for our promotions. And we are also exercising tolerance whereby we are giving the public an option to choose between Carlsberg-branded replicas or not,” said Chirwa.

He added that as per the agreement, it is only Carlsberg that can use the replicas for promotional purposes.

Umbro’s brands manager for Africa Tristan Karakashim said they decided to go into partnership with the Flames because of their never-say-die attitude.

“They are an ambitious team and we are excited to enter into partnership with such a team,” he said.

Principal secretary in the Ministry of Youth and Sports Justin Saidi called upon other sports associations to emulate FAM.

“FAM are making strides. They have an official sponsor which is Carlsberg and now they have a new technical sponsor Umbro and they need to be commended.

“As government, we would like to express our gratitude to Umbro for taking FAM on board. We are very excited because in the past, it was only government that used to support the Flames,” said Saidi.

The mayor of Blantyre Noel Chalamanda and Sports Council executive secretary George Jana were some of the notable figures that graced the occasion.

The Flames and some representatives of corporate companies also attended the function and captain Joseph Kamwendo, Limbikani Mzava, Frank ‘Gabadinho’ Mhango and Robin Ngalande displayed the Flames home and away kits.

The home kit is all red with a round collar that has the national flag while the away kit will be black jersey with a round collar that also has the national flag and green short. There are also two optional away kits.