• Gruma President and CEO Juan González Moreno expressed his pride at the title triumph obtained by the team, which Mission Foods has sponsored since 2009
   
• This sponsorship was key to Mission’s Australian market positioning strategy
   
• Mission’s backing of the Bulldogs is the longest-running sports club sponsorship in Australia
   
• Gruma has been operating in Australia since 2006 where it currently produces corn and flour tortillas, wraps, flatbreads, tortilla chips, and taco shells

Mexico City, October 5, 2016. – The Western Bulldogs, who are sponsored by Gruma through its global Mission brand, clinched this year’s Aussie Rules Premiership by defeating the Sydney Swans by a score of 89-67 in the Australian Football League (AFL) Grand Finale.

In a match played in front of 100,000 spectators at the legendary Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), and having beaten all the odds to reach the final from seventh place in the regular season, the Western Bulldogs gave their fans cause to celebrate by clinching the club’s first premiership since 1955.

On hearing the result of the AFL Grand Finale, Gruma President and CEO Juan González Moreno, said he was very proud of the title triumph obtained by the club, which his company has sponsored since 2009. That was also the year in which the Mission brand was launched in Australia, and it has since been adopted by Australian consumers as one of their own.

“That same year, we picked up on the enormous market potential of Australia and promptly got down to work positioning the global Mission brand among Australian consumers. The partnership with the Bulldogs was a key part of that strategy. Our choice was made easy by the popularity and importance of the AFL in Australia, which is a part of Australians’ everyday lives,” said González Moreno.

“When we entered the Australian market with the global Mission brand, we looked for an AFL partner that shares Gruma’s values and found the Western Bulldogs, whose philosophy is also based on supporting the community through socially responsible initiatives. We are strongly synergized and strategically aligned with those ideals.”

Mission’s business deal with the Western Bulldogs runs until 2017, which will make Mission Foods the longest-running sponsor of a sports club in Australia. Gruma, the world’s leading producer of corn flour, tortillas, and wraps, has been operating in Australia since 2006, where it has a next-generation plant producing 35,000 tons a year of corn and flour tortillas, flatbread, tortilla chips, and taco shells per year.