A DARWEN business has sealed a deal to become the main sponsor of Blackburn Rovers social media for the rest of the season.

WEC Group, an engineering and fabrication firm based in Junction Street, signed the deal which expands on being the main club sponsor for non-league side AFC Darwen.

Danny Davis, Rovers’s business development manager, said it was a ‘perfect’ partnership.

He said: “It’s great to partner with a successful local company and specifically help them recruit locally, thus providing Blackburn and Darwen with skilled individuals and providing ambitious youngsters with a fantastic opportunity.

“Ultimately, it fits perfectly with our ethos of working closely with the local community and engaging with fans of the future.”

The company has worked with closely with the Ewood Park side for a number of years, having sponsored the Darwen End stand between 2008 and 2012.

Customers have used Rovers’ hospitality on match days over the years as part of that sponsorship and a host of players have attended the annual Apprentice of the Year awards ceremonies.

Wayne Wild, WEC commercial director and Rovers supporter, said: “We are always keen to strike partnerships with local clubs, in particular Blackburn Rovers.

“The company is proud to be associated with Rovers and as a lifelong supporter I am hoping the results of our partnership will match more success on the pitch.

“The club’s target audience for social media is exactly the kind of people we are trying to reach out to as a way of promoting our apprenticeship schemes, as they provide people with a practical alternative to going to college or university.”

WEC’s in-house training academy is the only apprenticeship scheme of its type in the UK.

It offers five-year programmes to people in welding and fabrication, computer numerical control machining and technical production engineering.

The company has also revealed it has seen an 80 per cent increase in staff over the past 18 months and a major recruitment drive is underway with more than 40 live vacancies across its sites which also include bases in Yorkshire, Lanarkshire, Merseyside and the West Midlands.