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GFC Partnership

Gillingham Football Club is excited to welcome Hochiki Europe as its new Rainham End partner. The agreement will see the Rainham End at Priestfield Stadium renamed ‘The Rainham End in partnership with Hochiki’, initially, until the end of the 2026/27 season.

GFC's Priestfields Stadium

Hochiki, whose European head office and manufacturing plant was established over 30 years ago in Gillingham, have been world class leaders in the production of commercial fire detection products since being founded in Tokyo, Japan in 1918.

 

Gillingham was chosen for the site of the European factory partly because of the historical link between Will Adams and Japan; Will Adams was a 16th century navigator, born in Gillingham in 1564. He was the first European to establish a trade route between England and Japan and was honoured as the first non-Japanese Shogun.

 

The company is now spread across three sites in Medway, after they recently announced a £5.5 million investment into a new shipping and warehousing hub based in Chatham.

Will Adams

GFC Team on Pitch

A spokesperson for The Gills said,

 

“We are excited to welcome Hochiki as The Rainham End’s official partner!

 

We have been working closely with Hochiki over the last year and they have been amazing! It’s very important for the club to have partners that value the community of Kent as much as Hochiki do!

 

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the team at Hochiki for their fantastic support and I am looking forward to watching this partnership grow!”

 

Shinsuke Kubo, Managing Director from Hochiki said,


“Hochiki Europe has had headquarters in Gillingham for 31 years and we’re proud to continue our support of the local community. To celebrate the new partnership Gills fans will have the chance to win a host of prizes including training ground visits and match tickets courtesy of Hochiki. Fans should keep an eye on social media channels to find out how to be in with a chance of winning!”