Jumbo May Be On Its Way Out of Pro Cycling
Rumors and rumblings are swirling in the men’s and women’s pro pelotons as reports of Dutch grocery behemoth Jumbo reconsidering their sports sponsorship obligations after 2024 came to light this week. In cycling, Jumbo is best known for its men’s and women’s program Jumbo-Visma, which houses cycling legends like Marianne Vos and Wout van Aert.
For some context, the Jumbo Visma program reportedly costs 27 million Euro yearly to operate. That’s a steep incline considering in a 2019 report, the then-new team reportedly only had a ten million Euro budget.
Jumbo itself has been involved in cycling since 2015, and you may recall previous iterations of the team by the name of Lotto-Jumbo. The brand’s interest in sports stemmed from a desire to spread the message of good nutrition and exercise as a healthy lifestyle. In fact, in 2018, the cyclists on Team Jumbo-Visma began using the then-new Jumbo Food Coach app, which is linked to Jumbo.com and allows people to not only meal plan, but get their groceries delivered.
However, the company is not without scandal: VeloNews reported that in September, then-CEO Frist van Eerd was arrested in the Netherlands on suspicion of fraud and money laundering—specifically, using the company's sport sponsorships in motorsports to launder money. His home was even raided as part of the investigation into the allegations, and he stepped down from the role of CEO.
Back in January, the new CEO Ton van Veen announced that sponsorship for motorsports would be in jeopardy. Planet F1 reported that Van Veen said: “Motorsport did come to us in a special light. That also affects our sponsorship in motorsport. We will not continue with that for long.”
Then, this week, Dutch news outlet AD announced that Jumbo wasn’t just reevaluating motorsports, it was reconsidering all sport sponsorships, including cycling. While nothing has been confirmed, this news will certainly shake up the pro peloton, since Jumbo-Visma is one of the strongest teams in terms of riders’ star power but also in terms of team support and staffing.
“Jumbo is currently looking at its positioning,” a spokesperson for Jumbo told CyclingNews. “We are also looking at whether our sponsorship policy still matches our vision and ambitions and the needs of our customers. Our current sponsorship agreement with Team Jumbo-Visma runs until the end of 2024. As soon as there is something to report, Jumbo will do so.”
Contracts are already in place to keep Jumbo in the title sponsor position for the team in 2024—an Olympic year—but the team will likely start at least quietly shopping for a new title sponsor to fill that gap right away. TBD if the iconic bright yellow kits will remain.
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