Bears Women will be backed by coffee roaster and nationwide café chain 200 Degrees for their debut season in 2025.
The Nottingham-based roastery business – which has 22 national shops including two in Birmingham – has agreed a partnership to be Bears Women’s back-of-shirt sponsor.
And the deal will also see 200 Degrees become an Associate Partner of Edgbaston and official coffee supplier to the iconic stadium.
200 Degrees has evolved from humble beginnings and an “old roaster in a garage” to roasting over 200 tonnes of coffee a year at a modern facility on the banks of the River Trent supplying more than 500 wholesale customers.
It’s a second foray into women’s sport sponsorship for the company following its partnership with UCI women’s continental cycling team Smurfit Westrock.
Head of Sales Ben Riley said the company is passionate about supporting women’s sport and inspiring increased participation.
“We’re delighted to be sponsoring Bears Women for their upcoming season,” he added. “We believe women’s sport deserves its chance to thrive and we want to play our part in driving participation across sport, including cricket, for women and girls.
“Expanding our sponsorship to the Bears was a no-brainer for us; we share a lot of the same values. We’re keen to throw our support behind initiatives that add colour to our communities and raise the profile for underrepresented groups.
“Birmingham also feels like a second home for us: we’re proud to have two shops in the city, and to supply coffee to the University of Birmingham, so we’re amongst friends here. And as a Brummie myself, I couldn’t be happier to be supporting a team based here.
“Bears Women is a really positive project for us to be involved in. Coffee is about community in the same way cricket is, and it goes hand-in-hand with the match day experience.
“With the growth of women’s cricket, we hope to find new fans, and make new friends, and there’s the potential for us to help spread the word about the game across our network of national shops.”
Bears Women’s players spent a day at 200 Degree’s roast house HQ learning the art of coffee making at the company’s Barista School.
Edgbaston Head of Partnerships, Ben Seifas, added: “Many of our Bears Women players are coffee aficionados so it’s a really nice fit for the team.
“One of our key marketing focusses is to make sure we showcase players’ personalities to create role models. With coffee being a keen interest of a lot of the players, it has been great to tie up a partnership in this way.
“There is also a strong sustainability synergy. We have a focus on sustainable practices across the stadium and 200 Degrees are a like-minded brand that sources beans from small, local, family or community-run farms that don’t negatively impact the land. Their carbon footprint is minimal and workers are paid a fair price for their crops.
“It’s also important we continue to improve our fan-first focus at Edgbaston and so being able to provide 200 Degrees coffee on matchdays and non-matchdays enhances the quality of our offering to visitors.”
Bears Women will compete for trophies on three fronts in their debut season: Vitality Blast, Metro Bank One Day Cup, and for the first time a knockout competition, the Vitality T20 Women’s County Cup, featuring sides from all three tiers of the national system.
2025 Membership
It’s an historic year for the Club in 2025, as Bears Men and Women will compete side-by-side. Bears together.
Join the journey with Memberships available, including 1882 Full Club (all domestic cricket), our new B5 White Ball (T20, 50-Over and The Hundred) and Junior Bears (U16s).
