Wednesday, December 8th, 2021
Separation after just a week
Mercedes’ controversial sponsor is history
Advertise a company linked to a fire disaster? The Formula 1 team Mercedes had signed a sponsorship agreement with Kingspan. But after only a week it is over. The outcry was too great.
The Formula 1 world championship team Mercedes and the Kingspan company ended their sponsorship deal, which was harshly criticized by the British public, after just one week by mutual agreement. “After taking all factors into account, both sides have come to the conclusion that, regardless of the positive effects, it is not appropriate to continue the partnership at this point in time,” said the racing team.
Kingspan has been linked to the Grenfell Tower disaster, the devastating high-rise fire in London in 2017 that killed 72 people. The Irish company manufactures insulation and cladding products, an investigation into the accident is pending. The families of the victims sharply criticized Mercedes after the partnership was announced last Wednesday, and the British Housing Minister Michael Gove reacted with incomprehension.
“I’ll write to Mercedes and ask them to reconsider their decision. The Grenfell community deserves better,” Gove said on Twitter. The survivor group Grenfell United described the partnership, which has now been terminated, in a Twitter post last week as “really shocking”.
Mercedes sports director Toto Wolff apologized last Friday in an open letter for the “additional pain” and added that the deal had been preceded by a thorough examination of the partner. Kingspan stated that “they played no part in the design or construction of the cladding system on Grenfell Tower and that a small percentage of their product was used, without their knowledge, to replace part of the system that was non-compliant and unsafe” , so Wolff.
The company was to “chair a new sustainability working group for the team” in the Mercedes Formula 1 team. That’s history now. Grenfell United welcomed the news. “Mercedes did the right thing by parting with Kingspan,” said a letter from Grenfell United. “Justice is still a long way off, but these small steps encourage us to keep fighting.”