SMART Garden Rooms, Offices & Studios, the leading Suffolk manufacturer of quality outdoor buildings, has confirmed that it has entered into a two-year sponsorship deal to back Bury St Edmunds Basketball Club.

The Bulldogs, founded in 1983, are Suffolk’s only basketball club offering local league opportunities at both a junior and senior level.

In spite of being an organisation entirely run by volunteers, the club currently has one team in the sport’s national league and are the only Club mark-accredited basketball club in west Suffolk.

Thurston-based SMART will be backing the club’s two local league teams, one of which competes across Suffolk and the other in Cambridgeshire.

Since the management buyout in 2019, SMART has been transformed into one of the county’s fasting growing middle-sized businesses, more than doubling its headcount, sales and turnover in that time.

It has sustained this impressive growth through investing in new designs, an even greater emphasis on customer service and loyalty building initiatives such as the ‘Friends of SMART’ scheme.

SMART has also expanded its corporate social responsibility activities, donating both high quality rooms and staff time to support Suffolk-based charities, community groups and schools.

Matt Moss, SMART’s managing director, said: “This was both a professional and a personal decision.  

“We wanted to back the Bury St Edmunds Basketball Club because, in many respects they mirror our own ethos. They are a local organisation, rooted in their community, seeking recognition beyond the county’s borders and succeeding in doing so on a national footing. 

 “But there is also a personal reason as this is a sport and a club with which I’ve been involved since I was 13. I know the positive impact that game had on my physical and mental health and wellbeing and so was keen to do what I could to help others likewise benefit. As I’ve been helping them generate more commercial sponsorship, I thought it was time to put our money where our rhetoric was!” 

 Club chairman, Ashley MacDonald added: “SMART’s sponsorship deal will allow the Club to primarily invest in our Local League men who will be receiving much needed new kits. The money that the club has saved in having to buy these kits will be reinvested in allowing us to provide our members with the best possible coaching, equipment and facilities available which is key as we continue to grow as a club.

 “This investment in the Club couldn’t have come at a better time as we continue to grow, and we are very thankful to Matt and the SMART team for their support in this. SMART has supported us for a number of years and share our vision for the future of the Club and we hope that we can in turn support them in increasing awareness in the local area.””