SPECIAL DELIVERY FOR CELTIC CUP

(l-r) Society secretary Iain Cameron, AJG Parcels' Argyll area manager Stephen Cameron and Duncan Cameron, society president

The Glasgow Celtic Society today announced a new sponsor for the oldest competition in shinty.

The Highlands and Islands' leading collection and delivery company AJG Parcels is to sponsor the Glasgow Celtic Society Cup - a competition that began in 1879, seventeen years before the Camanachd Cup was instituted.

The competition will be rebranded as the AJG Parcels Celtic Society Cup.

AJG Parcels, with its headquarters is in Inverness, has 20 vans operating in Argyll,  and has struck a two-year sponsorship deal with the Glasgow Celtic Society.

Fraser Maclean, operations director of AJG Parcels, said: "Our distribution network has offices in Lochgilphead and Arrochar, and we are currently looking for premises in Oban. In addition, we hope to move into premises in Glasgow within the next two months so we will very much cover the area of the AJG Parcels Celtic Society Cup.


"This is our company's 20th anniversary and we felt that it was important to do something for shinty, Scotland's oldest team game, and particularly for the Argyll area where our vans are such a distinctive daily sight and where we have now been operating and generating local employment for 12 years.


"We are delivering 9,000 parcels a day throughout our delivery network which stretches from Orkney to Lochgilphead and we believe in putting something back in to the communities we serve. We are a Highlands-owned business and in that area we have been involved with football, sponsoring Clachnacuddin FC , Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC and Ross County FC as well as being current sponsor of the North of Scotland Cup."


He added: "Our deal with the society will give us more geographical balance as far as the southern half of the Highlands and Argyll goes and we look forward to being involved in shinty. We're grateful to former Camanachd Association chairman Ken Thomson, Inverness, for suggesting and facilitating our links with the society."         

    

Duncan Cameron, president of the Glasgow Celtic Society, commented: "Our directors are delighted to be associated with AJG Parcels in as sponsorship, particularly as the company serves all communities that have teams competing for the oldest trophy in shinty. 

"We look forward to creating a partnership that will benefit the Society and AJG Parcels and will allow us to preserve our history and continue our contribution to the development of shinty in Argyll and the Central Belt."

Three ties in the first round of the AJG Parcels Celtic Society Cup will be played this Saturday (March 31) and the final will be held on Saturday June 23, at a venue yet to be arranged.

Robert Baxter of cup holders Kyles Athletic is one of 120 people AJG Parcels employs throughout the Highlands and Islands and Argyll -- a far cry from 1992 when Adrian Gray (now managing director) launched the business in Inverness with one van and one driver, making 25 deliveries a day.