MP Motorsport and Dutch lubricant manufacturer Kroon-Oil have extended their partnership for another five years. This makes it one of the longest-running partnerships in motorsport: by 2030, the two will have been working together for 18 years. MP and Kroon-Oil want to intensify their collaboration in the coming years, including in the areas of marketing, relationship management and technical innovation. Other MP partners will be increasingly involved in the collaboration.
Over the next five years, MP Motorsport and Kroon-Oil want to build on the foundation laid over the past 13 years, which has been greatly expanded in recent years. MP and Kroon-Oil are now working together on the production of marketing content while MP supports Kroon-Oil’s customer relationship management through group visits to race weekends throughout Europe and workshop tours at MP’s Westmaas headquarters in the Netherlands. As MP’s technical partner, Kroon-Oil supplies a wide range of oils, greases, brake fluids and maintenance products.
“A lot has happened: we have changed, MP has changed, and our collaboration has grown with us,” says Leon ten Hove, marketing manager at Kroon-Oil. “The reason why it has become such a long-lasting and successful collaboration is that the DNA of both companies simply matches. We are both down to earth and give each other the space to do business. What's more, MP’s development into one of the largest single-seater teams in the world fits in with our own growth ambitions. A large part of our market is now export. Thanks to MP, we can reach new markets – even outside Europe, thanks to MP’s international calendar.”
The new agreement between MP and Kroon-Oil further increases the contract value. This is in line with the growth that both parties are still experiencing. The five-year extension also gives the partners the space to implement broader initiatives structurally and over a longer period of time.
“Over the past five years, our collaboration has intensified significantly, including through joint campaigns and numerous customer promotions,” says Rinaldo Stopel, team lead marketing at Kroon-Oil. “Over the next five years, we want to extract even more value from our partnership. MP is now also making great strides in karting. An important addition is therefore the integration of karting into the collaboration.”
Additionally, Kroon-Oil sees growth opportunities in its collaboration with other MP Motorsport partners while the partnership with MP has also led to Kroon-Oil teaming up with MP drivers Richard Verschoor and René Lammers.
“At MP Motorsport, we want to create a partner community in which a passion for our sport is the common factor,” says Maarten van Wesenbeeck, marketing manager at MP Motorsport. “As our most loyal partner, Kroon-Oil plays an important role in the synergy that this creates, and it won’t be long before we reap the first rewards. In November, for example, we held a partner event in Qatar on the eve of the Grand Prix, where numerous discussions took place. This resulted in various joint ideas, both in the field of marketing and in the area of technical innovation.”
The collaboration between MP Motorsport and Kroon-Oil began in 2013, when Ten Hove himself approached the team to become a sponsor. It started with product sponsorship for a modest single-seater team, but quickly evolved into today’s stable and powerful partnership.
