Bury Football Club is delighted to announce an extension to our commercial partnership with long-standing local business Dunsters Farm, who will become the club’s Official Community Partner. The new agreement strengthens the relationship between two organisations with deep roots in Bury and a shared commitment to making a positive difference across the borough. Already a valued commercial partner of the club, Dunsters Farm’s expanded partnership will place an increased emphasis on community engagement, supporting Bury FC’s ambition to use the power and reach of the football club to create a lasting positive impact throughout the town.
Bury Born and Bred Dunsters Farm is an independent, third-generation family-run foodservice business whose history in Bury stretches back more than 60 years. The company’s story began with founder Les Ratcliffe and a milk round before the family moved to Dunsters Farm in Brandlesholme. Dunsters Farm became a limited company in 1963 and has since developed into a major foodservice supplier, providing thousands of products to customers across education, healthcare, hospitality and catering throughout the North of England. Despite that growth, Bury has remained at the heart of the business. After operating from Brandlesholme and later Tottington, Dunsters moved to its purpose-built headquarters at Waterfold Park in 2006, where the company remains based today. That strong local identity is matched by a longstanding commitment to supporting the communities in which Dunsters operates. Over the years, the business has supported a range of charities and community initiatives, including food banks and organisations tackling food poverty. During the challenges of 2020, Dunsters used its resources, stock and delivery network to support local residents, charities and key workers, with donations and assistance provided to organisations including Bury Council foodbanks and FareShare. More recently, Dunsters Farm became Festival Sponsor of the 2026 Bury Food & Drink Festival, supporting an event designed to bring people into the town centre and showcase Bury’s independent businesses, traders and hospitality sector. Becoming Bury FC’s Official Community Partner represents the latest chapter in that commitment. A Partnership Built Around Bury Through the extended partnership, Bury FC and Dunsters Farm will work together to strengthen the club’s community activity and identify opportunities to support people and organisations across the borough. For the club, the partnership also demonstrates the value of building long-term relationships with local businesses that share Bury FC’s ambitions beyond the pitch. Chris Watts, Head of Commercial & Media at Bury FC, said:
“We’re delighted to extend our relationship with Dunsters Farm and welcome them as Bury FC’s Official Community Partner.
Dunsters are exactly the type of organisation we want to build long-term partnerships with. They are a successful, family run business with more than 60 years of history in Bury, but just as importantly, they have consistently demonstrated how much they care about the town and the people within it.
Bury FC has a responsibility to be much more than a football club. We want to use our platform to make a genuine difference within our community, and having partners who share those values is incredibly important.
This extension isn’t simply about increasing Dunsters Farm’s presence around the football club. It is about bringing two organisations with strong roots in Bury together and looking at what we can achieve for the town.
We’re really excited about developing the partnership and bringing some of those ideas to life over the coming months.”
Hannah Barlow, Managing Director of Dunsters Farm, added:
“Bury FC has always been part of the Dunsters Farm story, from my grandfather taking us to matches at Gigg Lane to the work we’ve quietly supported over the years.
Giving back to the towns we serve is something we work hard at every day at Dunsters, whether that’s through the food we put on people’s plates, food bank & charity partnerships or good employment practices.
Through our sponsorship of the club, we’ve seen first-hand the significant work Bury FC’s community team is doing, from inclusive sport initiatives to summer camps for local children. Becoming the club’s Official Community Partner felt like a natural next step for a relationship that has been building for years.
We’re proud to back Bury FC’s work off the pitch as much as on it, and we can’t wait to see what the next chapter of this partnership brings for the town we both call home.”
Bury FC would like to thank everyone at Dunsters Farm for their continued support of the club, and we look forward to working together throughout the partnership as we continue to strengthen our impact across the borough.
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