Harvey’s Brewery moves from community partner to Lewes FC shirt sponsor

Harvey’s Brewery has become the official front-of-shirt sponsor of Lewes FC Men’s First Team, moving from community partner to shirt sponsor and tying Sussex’s oldest independent brewery to a fan-owned club in the town where both were founded. The brewery became a community partner at The Dripping Pan in 2024, with its beers now served throughout the ground, and its logo will feature on the front of the Men’s First Team shirts.

Harvey’s is Sussex’s oldest independent brewery, established in 1790 and owned by the same family for eight generations. It brews from a Grade II listed brewery in Lewes and was named UK Brewer of the Year at the International Brewing Awards in 2025.

Lewes FC is a fan-owned, not-for-profit football club based at The Dripping Pan in Lewes, East Sussex, founded in 1885 at The Royal Oak pub. Its men’s team plays in the Isthmian League Premier Division, and it was the first professional or semi-professional club to pay its women’s team the same as its men’s.

Paul Matthews, national account manager at Harvey’s Brewery, said Lewes has a strong identity and an independent spirit that the brewery is proud to be part of, and that it is proud to back something that matters to the town and looks forward to seeing the shirts on the pitch and raising a pint together afterwards.

John Peel, director at Lewes FC, said the club and Harvey’s are synonymous with Lewes and that carrying such an iconic logo feels like a privilege, adding that the partnership brings together two organisations that represent the spirit and history of the town.

The club’s 2017 equal pay decision was reported by The Guardian, and the club says sponsorships have increased since it equalised men’s and women’s resources.

Harvey’s had been brewing in Lewes for nearly a century when the club was founded at The Royal Oak, a link the release highlights.

For the sector, the move shows a regional independent brewer converting a ground-level community partnership into front-of-shirt visibility, and a fan-owned club adding a heritage local brand at the front of its men’s shirt.

Source: British Guild of Beer Writers / The Guardian / Lewes FC