TBA Textiles founded same year as Rochdale Hornets

TBA General Manager, Mark Lineker with Hornets Foundation Trustee, Niel Wood

Rochdale Hornets is one of the oldest rugby league clubs in the world, having been formed in 1871 as one of the original 22 clubs that formed the Northern Rugby Football Union (now the Rugby Football League) in 1895.

TBA Textiles, which recently partnered with Hornets to become their main sponsor, was formed in the same year as Rochdale Hornets.

The company, which manufactures high quality thermal and heat protection textiles from its base in Castleton, originally supported the work of the club in its mentoring programme in local schools. Now it has taken the front position on the 2017 shirt, as well as continuing the programme working in schools to mentor young people and prepare them for the world of work.

General manager Mark Lineker explained how the partnership arose: “We were one of the sponsors last year for the reserve shirts and we went into a lot of schools mentoring, which was very successful. The opportunity arose to extend our sponsorship and become the main sponsors, so we took it.”

He added: he said: “The Hornets are a good set of guys and they’re known locally. To have the opportunity to work more closely with them in 2017 is something that we welcome enthusiastically; it makes you feel very proud.”

Over 140 years’ experience in the manufacture of industrial textile products has enabled TBA Textiles to become one of the world leaders in the field of high performance, heat resistant textiles for arduous applications.

In August 2015, TBA launched graphene alternatives to ITO coatings for anti-static, EMI shielding and explosive atmosphere applications. The graphene products were developed to replace conventional highly volatile and heavy metal filled formulations for the speciality electrically conductive coatings market, allowing application on curved or flexible surfaces.

In 2012, TBA underwent a full factory move to more modern premises, ideally located for the motorway network in Castleton.

Many of TBA Textiles’ employees have long service records, leading to a build up of knowledge of applications, products and processes.

A £150,000 grant from the N Brown Textiles Growth Programme in September 2016 allowed TBA to return to their British roots after previously outsourcing parts of its production to the Netherlands.

Having been promoted following their triumphant victory against Toulouse Olympique in September 2015, in which they equalled the Hornets 86 year record of 1,497 points, Hornets are set to face Salford Red Devils in a pre-season friendly at the Crown Oil Arena on Sunday (15 January).