Changes to Swedish Match Tour

Force 10 to take over management and communication of match racing series

With three weeks remaining until the next Swedish Match Tour event, the Long Beach Yacht Club’s Congressional Cup, Tour President Pierre Tinnerholm has announced broad changes that affect the management and communications personnel on the professional sailing series.

Tinnerholm confirmed that Force 10 Marketing will be responsible for managing the Swedish Match Tour together with the Stockholm-based company Swedish Match AB. He also said that a new television production team was in place, and presented a redesigned Web site for sailing’s global match-racing series

“The Tour has never been stronger,” said Tinnerholm. “We’re happy to have these new partnerships and we welcome the new personnel involved. We look forward to an exciting year ahead.”

The transition to Force10 will be seamless for the Tour. Force10’s Scott MacLeod, James Pleasance, Melissa Duhaime and Wendy Hinman all worked on the Tour in their former positions with the sports marketing company Octagon. Sean McNeill, a veteran yachting journalist, joins the team as Director of Public Relations for the Swedish Match Tour.

In an effort to canvas media in the Nordic countries Tinnerholm introduced Joakim Hermansson as the new Director of Public Relations for the Nordic countries. Hermansson has almost 20 years of experience in corporate and private public relations. He has been the Public Relations Director for the Swedish Match Cup, the benchmark event on the Swedish Match Tour, for six years.

The Swedish Match Tour produces 155 hours of television coverage reaching more than 426 million households worldwide annually. In 2004 Sportshows Television Ltd has responsibility for directing, producing and distributing the 30-minute programs around the world. In an effort to be more informative and user-friendly, the Swedish Match Tour Web site, www.SwedishMatchTour.com , has undergone redesign.

“We’re confident we have the right people in the right places to move the Tour forward and make it stronger,” said Tinnerholm. “We have increased the quality of each area - management, public relations, television production and Internet - which will present a stronger tour to the world market and help it grow.”

The Swedish Match Tour 2003-’04 season resumes with the Congressional Cup, hosted by the Long Beach Yacht Club in Long Beach, Calif., 19-24 April. Three events follow before the Tour’s fifth season concludes with the Swedish Match Cup in July.