Nature Valley, the granola bar and snack brand owned by US consumer food giant General Mills, has inked a deal to become an official brand partner of the 2027 Ryder Cup at Adare Manor in Limerick.
The company joins a growing stable of high-profile global brands supporting the tournament, including Ralph Lauren, UPS and Motorola.
Gráinne Galvin, Ireland country manager at General Mills, said the competition, which pits the best of European and US golf against each other, is a “generational event” with which Nature Valley is excited to get involved.
“We’ve had a long-standing relationship with the European tour here for the Irish Open,” she told The Irish Times. “We’ve been involved and been an official snack bar of the Irish Open for more than 10 years. It was really through our relationships with them that the opportunity arose to have a conversation around the Ryder Cup 2027.”
Galvin said that Nature Valley will undertake a large-scale “activation programme” in the lead-up to the competition in September 2027.
The brand will have a presence at the Amgen Irish Open tournaments in Doonbeg, Co Clare, later this year and in the K Club in Kildare in 2027.
“I think it’ll probably be our biggest event activation that we’ve ever done,” she said. “I think we’re going to be sampling over 250,000 bars at the Ryder Cup, which is incredible.”
Pictured at the partnership at Pitch in Dublin 2 (l-r) are Serena Massey, senior business account manager, General Mills; Gráinne Galvin, country manager Ireland, General Mills; and Patrick McKinney, partnerships sales Manager, 2027 Ryder Cup. Photographer: Michelle Cooper
Nature Valley says it has become one of the most popular consumer brands in the Republic since its arrival here in 2005. Almost one in three Irish households purchase the brand’s products, according to market research company Kantar.